Sonic Forces: War of Two Worlds
by ChaosDestruction
Summary: The impossible has happened: Eggman has finally conquered the world. But it wasn't enough for the mad scientist, as now, he has decided to expand to different universes to conquer as well. Now, the Resistance must team up with new faces in order to take down the mad doctor and his powerful new ally, the mysterious Infinite.
1. A Prelude to War- City Ruins

**Woah. Hold it right there. This isn't your typical crossover. No sir. If you want to understand in the** _ **slightest**_ **what is going on, please read Mystical Raven's Lilo and Stitch stories before reading this one, because it** _ **heavily**_ **uses characters and concepts from her stories. With her permission, of course.**

…

 **Have you read her stories?**

 **Well, if you're reading this, I'll presume you have, so go ahead. But first, and I can't believe I still have to say this:**

 _ **Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody. Sonic the Hedgehog, Lilo and Stitch, and the OC characters are owned by SEGA, Disney, and Mystical Raven. Please support the official release!**_

* * *

Two figures were glancing at a computer screen in the middle of a large chamber. The chamber was full of strange tanks, with purple-red cubes floating within. Another figure whistled a merry tune as it cleaned said tanks with a rag, decidedly ignoring it's comrades behind it.

"What about this one, boss?"

"Hm… Not enough civilization. We need SOMETHING to conquer."

"Okay, what about this one?"

"Too steampunky."

"This one?"

"Why is that ninja wearing _orange!?_ "

"…Uh, next o–"

"AGH!" The second voice screamed, slamming it's hands on the desk. "None of these are interesting!"

"Well, boss," The first voice replied exasperatedly. "We are randomly looking into parallel universes. What, exactly, were you expecting?"

"Oh, I don't know, something with enough technology to take advantage of, but also with some kind of unique power I can exploit!" The second voice growled. "The empire is strong, but there's always the chance that there will be something MUCH stronger out there!"

"Doctor," Another, deeper voice said. All three figures turned around. There was another figure, this one glowing a deep red, floating before them.

"Hm? What is it?" The Doctor asked.

"You may wish to look into this." The figure held out it's arms, exposing a magenta gemstone embedded in it's chest. The gem began to give an eerie red light as the monitor began to flicker, before changing to another screen.

"Hm…" A grin split the Doctor's face as he began to stroke his cartoonishly long, thick mustache. "Yes… This looks interesting…"

"Do you wish to try with this one?"

"Yes… Infinite, gather the Chaos Emeralds. Orbot, get the stone from it's containment."

"Understood/Yes, Doctor."

"Hehehehe… OHOHOHOHOHO!" The Doctor laughed maniacally. "Get ready, alternate universe! Prepare to witness the brilliant scientific mind of Dr. Eggman!"

* * *

"Stella?" Angel turned around, having noticed that Stella's head had shot up, as if she had noticed something. "Is there something wrong?"

"…Nothing," Stella shook her head. "I just thought I'd heard something."

"Oh," Angel shrugged. She then turned back to the mirror, adjusting the floral-looking bow tying back her anttenae. "Do you think he'll like this?"

"Of course!" The black, white-striped experiment smiled. "I think it looks really good on you!"

"Thanks," Angel smiled, before looking slightly disturbed.

"Angie?"

"I don't know… I've just got this… _Really_ bad feeling for some reason."

"Oh, silly," Stella smiled. "I'm sure your date with Stitch will go just fine."

"It's not that…" Angel started. "It's just…"

"It's just…?"

"Nevermind," Angel shook her head. "Well, I'm off!" With that, she went for the door. Stella waved her off, trying to ignore the vague sense of dread that was building up in the back of her mind as well.

Cut

Stitch didn't like waiting. Well, normally, at least. He was a rather impatient fellow, see, something he seemed to get from his mother. This was somewhat ironic, given that when most people see the color blue, which his fur was, they'd usually think of someone who was melancholic or laid-back.

He did have exceptions, though. Like waiting for Angel to come. That was something he could wait for. If he was waiting, then that meant she had something planned. He usually liked that.

He could also wait if it meant having to meet Odin. Yeah, he _really_ didn't want to do that. Not after hearing the, uh, _horror stories_ involving him. Doubly so for coming out of Fang and Slang's mouths. _Grinning_ mouths, at that. He shuddered at the thought.

He could also wait for baths, though given his (justifiable) aquaphobia, that was understandable.

" _My liege… My lieges…_ " Stitch groaned. He definitely _couldn't_ wait for… He didn't really know how to describe it, but 'shadowy grotesque abomination' was close enough. He couldn't wait for that… _Thing_ to leave him alone. It seemed harmless, if completely freaky, but it seemed to follow him everywhere. Apparently, Roy and Zack had the same problem with it. Based on the (lack of) reactions of the people around them, he presumed that most people couldn't see it.

But that was a problem for another time. For now, he was waiting for a certain someone to-

"Stitchie~!"

' _Oh, speak of the devil. Or, rather, speak of an Angel, and she shall appear.'_

"Hey, Angel," Stitch smiled, decidedly ignoring the eldritch abomination behind him. "You ready?"

"Yeah, I- Stitch, is something wrong?

"…" Stitch face-palmed. Of course she'd notice it. How couldn't she?

"…Stitch?"

"No," He sighed. "I was just thinking about something."

" _Darkness… Coming…_ " That was hard to ignore. Angel evidently heard it too, and they both turned to the source.

"Excuse me?" Angel asked.

" _Blind to the world…_ " It said, seeming to ignore her.

"O-okie-taka…" Stitch backed up a bit. Before turning to Angel. "I think we should go."

Angel nodded in agreement, trying to supress her, once again, rising bad feeling.

" _The Ruby… Hides the truth…_ " Both of them decidedly ignored it, before taking off on their own, oblivious to the magenta-ish, glowing gemstone that had appeared directly in front of the creature.

And then it began to make a strange pulsing noise.

Both of them swivelled around to face the strange gemstone.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Hey, Angel?"

"Yeah?"

"What the blitznak is that?"

"I have…" Angel blinked. "No idea…"

And then, seven different colored, diamond-cut gemstones suddenly flashed into existence, orbiting the magenta ruby (Stitch was certain that it was a ruby), before it suddenly began to shake. Emitting a strange, distorted garbling noise, a wave of energy suddenly erupted from the ruby, sending the other gems flying to parts unknown and discoloring everything around it.

"H-Hey!" Stitch shouted, suddenly being pulled from the ground.

"W-W-What's happening?!" Angel yelped, being pulled up from the ground as well. And then, everything began to distort around them. The world flashed white, before fading completely from view.

After a moment, however, the white faded to black. For a moment, neither wanted to open their eyes. However, the distinct sound of a nearby explosion jolted their eyes open.

"What the-!?"

Stitch couldn't get out the words. Angel herself went silent in shock. Around them, the ruined remains of apartments and townhouses, a far cry from the beautiful scenery of Kauai. A fireball came in from out of no where and slammed into one of the buildings, causing them both to jolt.

"Were we teleported…?" Angel pondered, almost speaking in a whisper.

"…I don't know," Stitch admitted. He then pointed to the left. "Look, that's Mrs. Hasagaia… Mrs. Hasasagawa… Mrs. Hasaguana… Hasabara… Uh… That looks like her fruit stand."

"That does," Angel admitted. "But wait, then… I… Uh… What's going on here!?"

"Well," Stitch let a small smile tug at the corners of his lips. "I guess we'd better find out!"

The duo quickly went running down the only path that was (Mostly) debris-free. They came up to a terrace, where they saw what looked like _massive_ – as in, skyscraper-sized – vaguely egg-shaped robots tearing through the city.

"What are those!?" Angel gasped.

Stitch growled. "Dead when I get my claws on them!"

They kept following the pathway, which lead to what appeared to be a spring. Deciding to just keep going, they leapt onto the spring and were sent rocketing up, and onto what appeared to be a small apartment building. From there, they were able to see the sunset casting it's rays onto the ocean.

"So, we're still on the island," Stitch noted. "You can recognize the shape of it, at least."

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain the city," Angel responded, as the two took off across the rooftops. They went down a slope, rocketed up, and then went down another slope. Continuing forward, they stopped for a moment when they saw what looked like golden rings floating in mid-air.

"What are-?"

"I don't know," Angel admitted. "But they seem harmless." With that, Stitched grabbed them and they moved forward.

It was then that they came across odd, white robots that-

"Are those shaped like _EGGS!?_ " Stitch howled with laughter, before effortlessly catching a plasma shot from the one in front and throwing it back in its face, destroying it instantly. The other two were dispatched just as quickly, seeing as large branches grew from a pair of small trees that had been growing to the side, and flung them elsewhere.

Next their path branched; one lead back down to ground level, and another lead them to another spring. They decided on the spring path, and picked up another ten rings.

After leaping up onto another building, their next obstacle was a strange loop-de-loop that was situated at the end of a slope. Stitch smiled, and curled into a ball before rocketing down the slope, through the loop, and into…

"Wait a minute, Stitchie!" Angel called. "I can't do that!"

Stitch slowly came rolling back. "You can at least run through it…"

"Uh, hehe…" Angel blushed a little, before doing just that, grabbing some more rings in the process.

She came to regret that, seeing as there were more robots right at the end of the slope. And she was moving too fast to stop herself from crashing into them.

Thankfully, Stitch had resumed his 'Spin Attack', as Angel had coined it, and shot past her, easily cleaving right through the metallic soldiers like a hot knife through butter.

"That looks useful," she noted, just as Stitch uncurled and retracted his quills.

"It is."

"Think you can teach me?" Angel smiled a bit.

"Maybe," Stitch shrugged. The two then took off again, coming across another spring, which, when they jumped on it, lead to another spring. Jumping on this one sent them flying over several buildings, and onto a brick road.

Running further down, they came across a lone robot, which, as expected, was easily destroyed by a charging tackle, courtesy of Stitch.

The road sloped downward before, to both of their complete confusion, twisting into a corkscrew. While it wasn't hard to run through, they had to wonder what the city planner was smoking to come up with that.

Anyway, the corkscrew dropped them off onto another slope, which lead to, you guessed it, another loop with robots at the end, prompting a spin attack from Stitch. At the end of the line of scrap metal was another spring, which sent them flying towards what looked like the town square.

* * *

A pair of robots were advancing on a lone figure. The figure held out its hand. Immediately, all of them froze in place. But before anything could happen, Stitch and Angel came down on them, instantly trashing them.

"Oh, thank you," The figure sighed. Stitch turned around, and smiled.

"Aurora?" He asked. "Glad to see you're here…"

"Stitch?" Aurora turned around, and sighed a breath of relief. "And Angel. Okay… That's good. It's good to see that you guys are okay."

"Likewise," Angel smiled, before adopting a more serious expression and gesturing to the ruined city around them. "Do you know what happened here?"

"No," Aurora shook her head. "I just remember hearing a strange noise, and everything going white."

"A strange noise?" Stitch perked up. "You mean a distorted garbling noise?"

"Yes, you heard it too?"

"Heard it? We saw the source!" Stitch exclaimed. "…I think."

"Really? What was it?"

"It was-"

"Of MY design!" All three of them sharply turned their heads. There, floating above them in a vaguely egg-shaped white hovercraft, was an equally egg-shaped man in a red coat, with the most _absurd_ mustache any of them had ever seen before.

The three were silent for a moment, letting this new information sink in.

"… _Your_ design?" Angel raised her eyebrow.

" _MY_ design!" The egg-shaped man grinned.

" _You?_ " Stitch asked.

" _ME!_ " The egg-shaped man now seemed a little irritated.

"Good," Stitch grinned darkly. "Now I know who to go after!"

"Don't get cocky, extradimensional blue runt," The egg-man sneered. "You and your two friends are nothing compared to the might of my ultimate weapon!"

"Yeah, yeah," Stitch growled. "Whatever." With that, Stitch charged the fat fool, aiming at the smug grin plastered on the man's face.

And he would've hit dead-center, too, if it weren't for a sudden black-gold blur smacking into him at impossible speed.

"What the-!?"

There was a strange creature, flickering with red static, standing before them. Whatever it was, it had black fur, with crimson accents on it's arms, legs, and what appeared to be 6, bent quills on it's head. It also seemed to be wearing white gloves with golden bands holding the cuffs, with a similar setup being used for a pair of white/black/red SOAPs.

("'SOAPs'?" Aurora asked Stitch later. Stitch quickly explained that they were shoes that had a plate secured to the sole to allow the wearer to grind down rails. "They were a fad about ten years ago, here on earth," he had added.)

The figure glowered at them with cold, red eyes, and crossed it's arms.

Besides it, another, burly figure, with a red torso, black legs, and a tuft of blue hair, wearing spiked arm bands landed. He too, was flickering with red static.

Next was a small, flickering robot, of a similar build to the first one. This robot was primarily painted cobalt blue, with silver limbs, what looked like red shoes, and had sharp claws. Also, it's sclera were black, with red glowing orbs acting as irises.

And then, to the far side, came a strange, flickering watery-looking creature with green glowing eyes. All three of them duly noted that it's brain seemed to be exposed.

A strange, yet familiar pulsing noise caught their attention, however. It was here that a completely darkened figure, save for a deep crimson glow and purple-ish, flickering aura, floated down in front of them. They couldn't seem much of him/her/ _it_ , but they could see what looked like a mask that covered the right eye, and had a red visor that slightly obscured the experiment's view of the left eye. Said left eye was golden, by the way.

Besides that, the figure had what looked like a bushy tail, large ears, and seemed to be wearing clawed gloves, and pointed hi-top sneakers. The three experiments turned to face each other.

"Anyone else getting a bad feeling about this guy?" Stitch whispered.

"Good," Angel sighed. "Then it's not just me."

"What do you think we should do?" Aurora asked.

"Well, given that we're looking at someone who is _obviously_ very evil," Stitch grunted. "I say we should fight him."

"We're out-numbered, 5 to 3," Angel gulped.

"True, but we've faced worse before," Stitch reminded her. "You remember the, uh, LeRoy clones?"

There was a pause.

"…True, but that wasn't going well for us, either," Angel added. She was scanning the area around them, and noticed a large hammer lying among the debris, just to the left. Quickly, she pulled it from the rubble and held it up in a defensive stance.

"We have less extreme numbers here, though," Stitch reasoned. "There's only three of us, there's only five of them. That little 'war' was about 500 vs 50,000, and we held our ground."

"Still…" Aurora turned back to the black figure. She noticed a red, glowing gemstone embedded in his/her/it's chest. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this one…"

"It's a bad idea, given that we don't know what these guys can do," Stitch agreed, before adopting a more serious expression. "But I don't think we have much of a choice here," He concluded, before lunging directly at the black figure.

He was met by empty space.

"Huh!?" Stitch turned around. The figure was standing just to the left of where it had been.

"Wha-!?" Angel blinked, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"I've never seen that kind of speed before…!" Aurora noted, stunned.

Stitch growled, and turned around to swing at the masked one.

Naturally, he ended up hitting nothing but thin air. Now pissed off, Stitch started lunging, swinging, and swiping at the figure every time it showed up. And each and every time, he hit nothing but thin air.

"Are you finished yet?" The figured asked in a deep, echoing voice. Okay, definitely a "he".

"Not even close!" Stitch snarled, before winding up for another punch.

Mistake. _Big_ mistake. _Really_ big mistake.

With a speed that neither Stitch, Angel, or Aurora coud even dream to fathom, let alone match, the masked one suddenly threw a sweeping kick towards Stitch's face. Stitch was unable to defend himself against it, and was subsequently flung into a concrete wall with such force that it came crumbling down on top of him.

"…Ow."

The masked one then turned to Angel and Aurora, before lifting into the air to evade the ground caving in under his feet, courtesy of Angel. He then held out a gloved hand, and fired red beams of energy at them. The two of them quickly leaped back to evade the attack, only for Angel to find herself having to adjust her path to evade a watery claw aimed right at her head.

"What are-!?" She got out, before blocking another strike with her hammer. She then swung at it, catching it right in it's brain, sending it flying back and into a wall. The thing then slumped, seemingly unconcious.

The burly red one went towards the pile of rubble Stitch was buried under, but before the other two could react, he was sent flying off into the distance by a sudden uppercut.

"Heh, loser," Stitch grinned, pulling himself out of the rubble.

"That's two," Angel said. "Three to go."

The three experiments quickly regrouped, before turning to face their remaining opponents. With the red one and the water monster both out of commission, the only ones remaining were the black-and-red creature, the blue robot, and the masked one.

"Impressive," The masked one spoke, if a tad condescendingly. "You've taken out those two. Now, do you think you can defeat the rest of us?"

"We're gonna try!" Angel said, her voice resolute. Stitch grinned at his girlfriend's words.

"So be it." The masked one snapped his fingers. The robot and the black one lunged towards them with incomprehensible speed.

Or, at least, they WOULD have, if the world around them hadn't slowed to a sudden crawl.

"Nice one!" Stitch cheered, lunging forward along with Angel at their three opponents.

That was when they both suddenly found themselves being roundhouse kicked into opposing walls by the black and red creature.

"No way!" Aurora gasped as the black one, seemingly immune to her magic, swivelled to face her.

"But," Angel gasped, pulling herself out of the debris. "Time was supposed to be stopped!"

The blue robot went to help it's compatriot against Aurora, only for Stitch and Angel to leap out at it and swing at it. The robot rolled to the left, evading both, and swiped at them with it's razor-sharp claws. Angel flipped backwards and Stitch quickly ducked under it. Small tufts of blue and pink fur were torn off by the robot's claws.

The blue robot then reared back, before a crackling aura of electricity erupted from it's body. And then, with truly absurd speed, launched at Aurora, who only had time to assume a defensive position.

Perhaps, with _too much_ speed. The robot went flying right past her, narrowly missing her head, and ended up crashing into a wall at high velocity.

There was a pause. The experiments looked into the debris, fully anticipating that it would erupt from within and attack them. But it didn't happen.

"Did it REALLY just destroy itself?" Angel facepalmed.

"Guess it couldn't handle it's own acceleration," Stitch noted, turning back to their opponents. "And then there were two."

"And judging by what we've seen so far," Aurora noted. "They're the strongest. I mean, somehow, I think one of them canceled out my magic!"

"Yeah," Stitch groaned. "This is gonna suck, isn't it?"

"Probably."

"What's the holdup!?" The fat scientist shouted. "Get them!"

"Understood," The masked one motioned forward. Instantly, the black one lunged forward and, to their mild surprise, curled into a spinning black ball and sped towards them.

"Two can play at that game!" Stitch shouted, extending his own quills and repeating the movement. The two spike balls collided with a great amount of force, cratering the ground beneath them.

The two suddenly shot away from each other and began circling at great speed, before clashing once again, only this time, Stitch was sent careening into another wall, leaving him embedded in a crater. His eyes began to droop, and his vision began to fade.

"Stitchie!" Angel shouted. Seeing the situation had began to turn against them, Aurora's body began to emit a brilliant light. The scientist looked at his monitor for a moment, before pointing at her.

"That one is giving off a tremendous amount of energy," He noted, sounding vaguely impressed. "You may wish to take her out now, before she becomes an issue."

"Tch," The masked one grunted, just as he came down on Angel and Aurora, and, in the blink of an eye, sent both of them flying with a roundhouse kick.

Stitch's eyes shot open in an instant. He grinded his teeth together, and his eyes began to flicker a bright yellow. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"

The masked one turned his head. "Hm?"

The scientist, however, was glacing between Stitch, and his monitor. His jaw was hanging open, and his eyes were probably bulging, though his shades made it hard to see.

"W-W-What!? What's this reading!?" He shouted, panicking.

"Hmph," The black and red creature scoffed, before holding out his hand. Arrows of energy shot at Stitch, who had just pulled himself out of the wall and was lumbering towards them. Without changing his expression, Stitch walked through the volley of shots, only pausing to backhand one that nearly hit him.

"Impressive," The masked one noted, adjusting his mask. The black and red one shot forward, only for Stitch to duck under him and shoot at the masked one who, caught completely off-guard, ended up catching Stitch's fist in his stomach.

"WHAT!?" The scientist gaped, looking ready to flee. For a moment, the masked one did nothing. Then, he shot his hand forward, Stitch was sent flying back with great force, leaving him sprawled on the floor, right between the other two. He struggled to pick himself up, before his arms gave out and he collapsed.

"Ugh..." He groaned. Just as his vision began to fade, he saw a pair of pointed black hi-tops land in front of him.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap! I REALLY hope you've read Mystical Raven's stories, otherwise that probably made no sense to you at all. I hope you have enjoyed, R &R, and I will see you all next time. Until then, take care. See ya.**


	2. Mission 1- Green Hill: Last Line

**Okay, the idea is this: I was a tad disappointed by how short 'Sonic Forces' was, so, I'm gonna have the Resistance going to a bunch more locations across the globe, such as a few I imagine you'd wanna forget (** _ **Carnival Night**_ **or** _ **Crazy Gadget**_ **, anyone?** **What about** _ **EGGMANLAND**_ **?).**

 **But enough torturing you with memories. Onto the story!**

* * *

"Man…" Vector the Crocodile rubbed the back of his head as he entered the room. "Eggman's army is unstoppable! Without Sonic, the people are losing hope and giving into despair."

"Despair is a luxury we don't have," Silver the Hedgehog delcared, crossing his arms, frowning. Next to him, Amy Rose sighed dejectedly.

"I still dream that Sonic is with us…" She turned to Silver. "Do you think he might be-?"

"I'm an optimist, but I'm also a realist," Silver interrupted. "Sonic is gone, Amy. And Tails is… Well, he's gone, too; we just can't find him. If we're going to win, we're gonna have to do it without them."

Espio the Chamelion nodded in agreement. "Silver is right. We've been hoping for a miracle these past six months, but I'm afraid we have to make our own miracle." Charmy Bee nodded in silent agreement.

Silver walked over to the computer near the center of the room. "Eggman's army has everyone terrified. If we want the people to rally, we have to show them that strength doesn't just come from numbers!"

"Not everyone is terrified," Charmy pointed out. "Isn't a new recruit joining us today?"

Silver smiled. "Yes, a survivor from the city, right?"

"Three survivors, actually," Amy corrected them, flipping open the computer and striking a few keys. "I'm accessing the file now…"

A large screen on the wall beside her flickered to life, before showing an image of the city center.

"The three of them were discovered here, unconcious and lightly injured, but alive," Amy began. "We can't tell what species they are, but it looks like two of them are related, siblings, I think."

"Wait, what do you mean, 'we can't tell what species they are'?" Vector raised an eyebrow. Amy sighed in annoyance.

"Exactly what I meant, Vector. We can't tell what species they are. My best guess was 'mutant koala', and one of them, a pink one, said, 'We get that a lot'."

Just then, the door slid open, and Knuckles the Echidna walked into the room.

"Knuckles!" Silver turned to face him. "What's the sitrep, commander?"

"Happy to see you're all still alive," Knuckles smiled a bit, before frowning. "Eggman's forces hace chewed through our defenses at Green Hill Zone…"

The sound of groans filled the room.

"And the resistance in the city is reporting that whatever it is that finished Sonic…" Knuckles shook his head.

"Sorry. Still not used to saying that," Knuckles turned to the screen. "Whatever it is has got them running in fear."

The door opened once again, and Angel, Aurora, and Stitch walked in, all three of them sporting some light bandages.

"Well, all except this brave trio, who survived the battle and made it here in one piece," Knuckles smiled, walking over to them. "Meet our newest recruits."

"Not that we had much of a choice, really…" Stitch muttered. Angel lightly punched his arm.

Charmy flew up besides them. "Hm… They don't look like much."

"And you do?" Stitch shot back. Knuckles grinned a bit.

"Well, look at you. You've got some bite!" He then turned to Charmy. "And he's right. Neither do you, Charmy, and I still manage to find a use for your pointy butt!" Charmy rubbed the back of his head and laughed slightly at that.

Knuckles reached under the table and pulled out a red device that looked vaguely like a red fireball with several black nozzles, a black handle, and 3 white barrels. "Here, kid, take this."

He handed the device to Stitch, who quickly snatched it up and gave it a once-over.

"Like a child on Christmas day…" Aurora smiled to herself.

"Now, let's get going everyone!" Knuckles declared. "The world's not gonna save itself!"

"Yeah!/Alright!"

* * *

The trio of experiments were now waiting in a room aboard a large ship. There was no one else there, so no one could make commentary on their "odd" appearance, nor could they comment on the fact that Stitch was now messing around with his new weapon, apparently called a "Wispon".

He squeezed the trigger, and a small burst of flame erupted from the three barrels.

"Nice," He cheered to himself. Angel laughed a bit.

"Enjoying your new toy?" She asked teasingly.

"Yeah," He admitted, lowering the weapon. "It's pretty interesting how they power it, too. Apparently, it's powered by something called "Hyper-go-on" energy that was donated by some aliens called "Wisps" that live here."

"I see…" Aurora seemed to be deep in thought. "Hey, what do you think happened here, anyway? I don't recall hearing about something like this."

"It's hard to say…" Stitch scratched his head. 'But I'm willing to bet money that the strange ruby we saw, that masked freak, and Dr. Eggman…" He paused for a minute to laugh. "Okay, seriously, Dr. EGGMAN?"

Angel giggled as well. "Apparently, it was a teasing nickname that grew on him. Can you believe that?"

"What's funnier is that he actually calls his empire the 'Eggman Empire'," Aurora struggled not to laugh herself. "If it weren't for, uh, whoever that was, I don't think anyone could take it seriously."

"I know, right?" Stitch smiled. "Like how, by himself, Dr. Hamsterwheel wasn't much of a threat. …Anyway, I'm pretty sure those three did something that landed us here."

"Probably, and remember what he called you?" Angel recalled. "He called you, and I quote, 'extradimensional blue runt'."

"So, I'm guessing he DID teleport us," Stitch concluded. "In fact, I'll go ahead and say that he teleported us to another dimension. HIS dimension."

"But then," Angel paused. "Why did the island coast look like Kauai? It can't be the same location, could it?"

"It might be, technically" Aurora shrugged. "It could be the same location, but in this other dimension. I don't know. Something here just doesn't feel right…"

"Hey, rookies," Knuckes came in through the comm-links they were wearing.

"Heya, Knucklehead," Stitch answered. He could almost see the tick mark on Knuckles' head, given his reply.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" All three of them cringed.

"Then don't call us 'rookies'," Stitch retorted, crossing his arms as soon as his ears stopped ringing. Angel shushed him.

"Anyway, what were you going to ask?"

"Well, here's your first mission: Eggman's forces have torn our defenses apart at Green Hill Zone. Your job is to whittle down Eggman's forces so we can retake the area. I know it might seem tough, but we're counting on you!"

"Got it," Stitch grinned, holding the Wispon in a "ready" position.

A sudden jolt alerted them that the ship had landed, and the hatch that lead out of the room opened before them.

The three of them bolted out and were greeted by a ghastly sight; people were fleeing, smoldering craters dotted the immediate landscape, and an army of robots was advancing.

"...Uh-oh," Stitch muttered, his ears drooping.

"Yeah…" Aurora sweatdropped. "He wasn't kidding when he said 'tough'…"

"Well," Angel picked her hammer back up. "They're not going to destroy themselves."

"True," Stitch agreed, before bolting down the hatch and into the fray, with the other two following him.

The trio quickly came across a series of "Egg Pawns" as Knuckles had called them. However, Stitch squeezed the trigger of his Wispon, and subsequently all of them were caught up in a jet of flame. The robots immediately exploded into scrap metal.

There were a few rocks dotted across the path, though they were easily side-stepped by the trio.

"Remember," Vector said over the comm-link. "Your mission is just to relieve pressure on our defenses. You don't have to destroy all of those things, just-"

"Take out a lot of them. Roger that," Stitch interrupted, shooting his Wispon at a ring ov Egg Pawns that surrounded them.

Afterwards, they noted a few "Buzz-Bombers" above them, all aiming their stinger-guns at them. A snap of Aurora's fingers saw all three of them freeze in space, leaving them unable to evade Angel swinging down her hammer, causing several large pillars of earth to erupt under them, causing them to explode on impact.

"That's it!" Stitch laughed as they ran down a hill. Seeing more Egg Pawns at the bottom, Stitch curled into a ball and barrelled into them, his quills easily slicing clean through them.

The end of the slope saw them running into a spring that launched them over a small cliff and onto a Dash Panel, which saw them moving forward in streaks of color. However, as soon as they hit the end of the straight area, they were able to see the rest of the area.

"What in-!?" Angel gasped, sounding both horrified and angered.

Knuckles had told them that Green Hill Zone was a lush valley situated next to a large lake, with some remnants of what might have been an ancient civilization dotted around, such as (Or, rather, exclusively) totem poles.

That's not what they saw.

What they saw was desert. Golden sand extended far into the horizon, farther than they could see. Ahead of them, what should have been waterfalls were instead flowing with dry sand.

"Did that guy really desertify this place!?" Stitch asked, a low growl in his throat.

"…" Angel was completely silent. Stitch and Aurora noticed this, and began backing off.

"Uh, Angel…?" Stitch asked. No response. They noticed several robots were now approaching their location. All of a sudden, thorny vines erupted from the ground beneath them and wrapped themselves around the robots.

As the robots struggled against the vines, Angel balled her fist, and the vines contracted, crushing the robots into scrap metal.

Undeterred, more robots charged over their fallen allies, only for Angel to stomp her foot, causing a chasm to open up beneath them.

"…Stitch?" Aurora started.

"Yeah?"

"Please, don't make her angry…"

"I try not to."

"Stitchie, Aurora?" Angel spoke, her voice dangerously low.

"…Yeah?"

"Let's get rid of them. Let's destroy EVERY. SINGLE. ONE."

"Woah!" Charmy shouted over the comm-link. "What's gotten into you!?"

"She, uh," Stitch paused. "…Doesn't like it when people mess with the environment. Particularly desertification…"

"Oh… Yeah…" Knuckles sounded sheepish. "I guess I kinda forgot to mention that…"

"Well, take it out on the robots, not us!" Vector shouted, panicking slightly.

"Consider it done." With that, she darted forward, Stitch and Aurora in tow, both of them hanging back slightly.

The trio came across a spring that bounced them up onto a platform with more robots ahead. Stitch easily torched them and the trio continued without slowing down, coming across another spring.

Here, however, they found a small, red jellyfish/squid like creature that held more than a passing similarity to Stitch's Wispon floating ahead. The thing turned around, and as soon as it saw them, suddenly flew right into Stitch's Wispon and then phased out of it.

"Wait, what the-?" Before he could finish, the weapon began to glow red.

" _BUSRT!_ "

"Look at you, rookies!" Knuckles said. "Looks like you've found a Red Wisp!"

"So, THAT was a Wisp?" Aurora asked. "It looked kinda cute…"

"Now you can use the Wispon's secondary function," Espio calmly explained. "The _Red Burst_ Hyper-go-on ability allows you to create small explosions beneath you to get to new areas. Look around for new routes to take."

All three of them slowly looked up and found several rows of Rings above.

"Gee, I wonder…" Stitch aimed the Wispon at the ground and pulled the trigger. Before he did, however, he frowned.

"And I SAID, 'Don't call us rookies!'" He shouted, pulling the trigger.

A fiery explosion erupted beneath him, launching him into the air.

A series of explosions launched him into the rows of Rings. Despite his little outburst, he laughed, flipping over a Buzz Bomber and striking it as he did so. However, when he went to create another explosion, he was met by a 'click.'

"…Oh." He muttered, right before plummeting to the ground. In doing so, he unwittingly crushed another Egg Pawn. The robot's comrades turned to aim at him, only for the remaining plant life, mostly flowers and some grass, to suddenly grow to an extreme length, wrap around them, and crush them.

"Thanks," Stitch got up.

The three of them dashed forward, through a loop and onto a Dash Panel that sent the flying over a large chasm. However, once they landed…

"Uh…" Angel's eyes stopped glowing as she stared ahead. Stitch and Aurora mimicked the gesture.

Ahead of them, several grassy platforms were moving back and forth.

"This breaks more laws of physics than I care to list…" Stitch mumbled. "Aurora…?"

"Got it." The platforms froze in place, giving the experiments a safe path to leap across. Along the way, they collected a total of 30 Rings.

Moving past the platforms, they passed a 'sand-fall' (Angel growled at the sight), and onto a wooden bridge.

"Oh, look," Stitch pointed out. "More Egg-bots to destroy."

"You don't need to tell me twice," Angel said, slamming her hammer down. All of the robots were torn apart by a series of rocky pillars.

Eventually, they bounced off another spring and onto a checkered, rocky path.

"Okay, that's good," Knuckles chimed in. "The rest are just ahead."

"That wasn't as tough as I thought it'd be," Stitch noted.

"Eggman's robots are designed to be easily replaced," Amy explained. "The idea is to overwhelm the enemy with numbers."

"So they're cheap, expendable, and weak," Aurora concluded. "That's, um…"

"That's what?"

"A little odd, if you ask me."

"Eggman doesn't like thinking his ideas through," Silver stated, bluntly. Stitch chuckled.

"So he's an Egg-head, too."

"Yeesh, you're sounding just like…" Amy trailed off. The trio paused.

"Sounding like…?" Angel asked.

"Never mind…" Amy sighed. "I'm detecting the bulk of the robots ahead. And it looks like Eggman is up ahead, too."

"Good," Stitch growled. "Payback time."

"If the Masked One is there, retreat. IMMEDIATELY," Espio ordered/warned.

"Ugh, that's still sore…" Angel rubbed her arm, where she had been kicked. Stitch growled.

"More of a reason to crack the Egg," Stitch added, his eyes flickering yellow.

Now it was Angel's turn to get a little nervous.

"Okay, Stitchie, calm down. It's only a bruise…"

"Still…" Stitch's eyes returned to normal.

With that, the trio continued down the path, making a point out of trashing any robot that they saw along the way.

* * *

Eggman was staring intently at the holographic screens before him.

"Yes…" He muttered. "I think we can build a weapon factory there…"

"Another one?" Orbot lazily looked up from his mid-air resting position. "Don't we have five already?"

"We need to destroy those resistance punks!" Eggman shouted back. "They may be weak now, but who knows WHAT kind of trouble they could cause down the line?! Especially if they have that energy I was studying!"

Unbeknownst to him, the trio of experiments were right behind him, with Stitch holding up a recorder. Orbot, however, did notice them.

"Excuse me? Boss?" He pointed. Eggman turned around.

"You again!?" He bellowed. "Back for more, are you?"

"I don't see your attack dog anywhere," Angel pointed out, her eyes glowing again. "So, no one's gonna keep us from giving you what you deserve."

There was a pause. Eggman stared at her, before throwing his head back and laughing.

"OH-hohohoho! Look at you, trying to act all tough!" He laughed. "It's adorable! You think you're heroes!"

"We ARE heroes," Aurora responded, adopting a fighting position. "If we can stop you here…"

"Go ahead and try," Eggman smirked, before the dome of his Egg-Mobile closed and he flew off.

"Hey!" Cubot shouted, the projection disappearing. "Wait!"

He and Orbot flew off after their boss. The trio was ready to do the same, when, all of a sudden, a huge horde of Egg Pawns, Buzz Bombers, and Moto-Bugs suddenly sprang up around them.

"Woah!" Stitch shouted as the three were suddenly surrounded. "Where'd they come from!?"

"Hey, Knuckles?" Aurora asked. "I think there's more robots than you expected…"

"Rgh… Dammit!" Knuckles growled. "Look, we can get a ship to you, but it might take some time! You need to hold them off as long as you can, okay!?"

"Easier said than done…" Stitch mumbled as a Buzz Bomber lunged for them. Aurora saw it, and quickly blasted it out of the sky with an energy blast.

A series of Moto-Bugs then drove at them from the horde, only for Angel to easily turn around and bat each one away with a series of hammer strikes.

Then, several of the Egg Pawns took aim. Stitch saw this, and quickly roasted all of them with a blast of his Wispon.

"Too weak," He muttered. He quickly ended up feeling like kicking himself when a stray shot from a Buzz Bomber grazed his cheek.

"Never mind."

For close to an hour, both sides continued to fight. The experiments would handily destroy any robot that came their way, but for every robot they destroyed, it seemed like five more would spring up to take it's place.

"Yeesh!" Angel gasped in exhaustion. "Do they EVER let up!?"

"At this rate," Aurora noted. "They'll wear US down!"

"We've got you covered!"

"!?" The trio looked up and found that the ship, the one they flew in from, was now bearing over them. All at once, Knuckles came down and slammed into the earth with such force that huge rock pillars erupted around them, instantly wiping out most of the robots.

"Woah…" Stitch mumbled, looking around at the destruction. "That was pretty cool."

"Well, that wouldn't have gone so well if you hadn't worn 'em down like that," Knuckles grinned, dusting himself off. "Good going, rookies. That's mission accomplished. We can get some more defenses set up, now."

Stitch promptly bopped him on the head.

"Ow!" Knuckles shouted, grabbing the big bump that was forming on his head. "What'd you do THAT for!?"

"Don't call us 'rookies'," Stitch shot back.

"So, we can go back?" Aurora asked, cutting in between the two to keep them from fighting.

"Yup!" Charmy flew in behind them. "The ship's ready to take ya back. Leave the rest to us!"

"Thanks," Angel smiled, before turning to the desert in the distance. "Also…"

"Yeah…" Knuckles grunted. "It's supposed to be a lake. I don't know how Eggman managed to turn it into a desert, only that he had started before, well…"

"Before what?"

"Nothing," Knuckles brushed them off. "Head back to the ship. You guys seem pretty tired."

"By the way..." Stitch paused, before handing Charmy the recorder he was using. "This is what the Egg-Head was planning. You might find it interesting."

* * *

A short distance from where the Resistance was setting up, a black figure was watching Stitch, Angel, and Aurora as they stepped onto the ship.

"I-I-I think that's S-Stitch and Aurora I see…" She stammered. "Shouldn't w-we follow them?"

Next to her, a green-and-yellow yawned lazily.

"Whatever," He muttered, not bothering to look up.

"S-Summer…" She turned.

"What?" The green and yellow experiment, now identified as "Summer" cracked open an eyelid. "It's not like they can tell us what's going on, Lady Kuroko."

"S-Still…" Lady turned around. She nervously looked back and forth, before suddenly disappearing into her shadow and darting after the trio. Summer groaned.

"This is gonna be a pain…" He floated after her, managing to evade detection and entered after his sister, just as the hatch closed and the ship began to lift off.

It then activated it's thrusters and shot off towards Central City, with the three Resistance experiments and two stowaway experiments in tow.

* * *

 **And… That's a wrap for this chapter!** **I wanted it to be done in time for Christmas, so, yeah. It's not quite as long as the previous chapter, mostly because, well, they were pretty much fighting Robot Storm from 'Sonic Heroes'. And we all know how boring THAT 'boss' is. That said, I think it's time I introduced something I haven't used in a while:**

 **Character Card:**

 **Name: Stitch (626)**

 **Age: ?**

 **Height: 3'5"**

 **Weight: 120 pounds (54 kilos)**

 **Status: Healthy**

 **Alignment: Chaotic Good**

 **Character Card**

 **Name: Angel (624)**

 **Age: ?**

 **Height: 3'2"**

 **Weight: Unknown (Don't ask)**

 **Status: Healthy**

 **Alignment: Neutal Good** **  
**

 **Character Card:**

 **Name: Aurora (585)**

 **Age: ?**

 **Height: 3'3"**

 **Weight: Unknown**

 **Status: Healthy**

 **Alignment: Neutral Good**


	3. Mission 2- Chemical Plant: Spaceport

**(Hiding behind a Reinforced desk) Okay, okay! I know! I know that this took AGES to complete! But it's here! I'm back! Seriously!**

 **A-Anyway, in all seriousness, this is where the story takes its turn, and the fun REALLY begins. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and if you did, leave me a review. I always appreciate any constructive criticism. That said, let's get started!**

 **And for the love of God, put those pitchforks and torches away!**

* * *

Knuckles came in, grumbling incoherently under his breath. Behind him, the two new experiments were following him. Lady Kuroko was looking around anxiously, while Summer yawned, looking absolutely apathetic.

"Who're they?" Silver asked, turning around.

"When we came back from Green Hill, I found these two in the ship with the rookies," Knuckles motioned to them. "Little stowaways…"

"Well," Amy paused. "We can use any help that we can get, so, like it or not, Knuckles…"

"So," Summer interrupted. "What makes you think we want to help you?"

"You're free to leave the base and possibly take it up with the Masked One," Espio lowered his eyelids. Summer raised an eyebrow.

"…What?"

"Leave and you might die fighting."

"It's a pain either way."

"S-Summer…" Lady Kuroko interrupted, nervously looking back and forth. "D-D-D-Don't you remember? Stitch a-a-and Aurora are here…"

"Stitch and Aurora?" Amy asked. "What about them?"

"T-They're our siblings."

"…Oh," Knuckles paused and took a closer look at them.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Uh…" Lady Kuroko backed up. "W-What are you-?"

"You don't LOOK too much like them," Knuckles remarked. He was then smacked upside the head courtesy of a Piko-Piko hammer.

' _Where'd she get that?'_ Lady sweatdropped and backed away as Knuckles clutched the swollen red bump on his head.

"WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR!?" He roared. Amy harrumphed as she replaced her hammer.

"Can't you see that you're making her nervous!?" She demanded, before turning back to the stunned Lady. "Hey, don't worry about _Knucklehead_ over here."

"Knucklehead…" Summer chuckled a bit. "Heh… Amusing."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?" The rest of the Resistance sighed in irritation at Knuckles' outburst.

"Seriously, Knuckles," Vector sighed. "No offense, really, but if we weren't in this mess, you'd be sitting in front of a giant green rock, being tricked by Eggman into collecting the Chaos Emeralds for him."

"But…"

"That," Charmy added, wearing a big, smug smirk. "And you've been tricked by Eggman, like, five times! I mean, come ON! Who else but you listens to the fat guy who's pretty much spending his life trying to conquer the world?"

"Ugh…" Knuckles shook his head, just as the door opened. Stitch, Angel, and Aurora walked in.

"Hey, guys. What's…" Stitch trailed off. "Up…?"

"U-uh…" Lady waved nervously. "H-h-hi Stitch... Hi A-Aurora…"

"Whatever," Summer sighed, leaning against the wall.

"Oh, Lady, Summer…" Aurora sighed in relief. "Okay, that's two more…"

"I'm worried about Clover and the others," Angel said, sounding worried. Stitch patted her back.

"Don't worry," He reassured her. "They can take care of themselves."

"But, what if they-"

"ANYWAY…" Knuckles interrupted. Angel and Amy shot him an irate glare. "We've received some great news: _Sonic is alive!_ "

The atmosphere in the room changed in an instant. The experiments noted that everyone else was conveying expressions of shock, surprise, but, most of all, sheer, unbridled _relief._

"Who's Sonic?" Angel whispered to Stitch. He shrugged in response.

"No way…" Silver's jaw dropped, before breaking into the biggest grin imaginable. "That's great! That means we have a chance of pulling this off!"

"What!?" Amy gasped, before laughing in sheer joy. "Oh, thank goodness! I knew it! I knew it!"

"He's being held in the orbiting prison," Knuckles explained further. "My spy there says that he's in a solitary confinement cell."

"Solitary confinement?" Espio asked, before shaking his head. "Of course. Sonic is, after all, the biggest thorn in Eggman's side. He likely wanted to make sure he couldn't escape to foil his plans again."

Aurora cringed at the thought of what that must be like.

"Awful. That's absolutely awful…" She responded. Stitch, Angel, and Lady silently agreed. Summer simply shrugged nonchalantly.

"For a guy who likes to run like Sonic does, that's gotta be like torture…" Vector noted, wincing at the notion.

"That's horrible…!" Amy gasped. "We have to rescue him!"

"Plans already happening, Amy," Knuckles grinned sharkishly. "I've got a squad on the way to the Space Port in the Chemical Plant Zone to 'borrow' a shuttle."

 _'A chemical plant?'_ All of the experiments thought at once. Angel and Aurora internally groaned. Stitch seemed intrigued. Summer yawned in boredom, and Lady fidgeted nervously.

"C'mon, guys. Who's up for an old-school style jailbreak?" Knuckles continued, grinning. Stitch gave the exact same grin, remembering his own jailbreak from the Galactic Federation so long ago.

"Count me in."

"I dunno…" Angel started. "My powers might not work too well in orbit, but…"

"But…?" Amy asked, looking confused.

"If there's any chance of us finding any of my sisters, then it's a risk I'm willing to take," Angel said. Stitch grinned.

"Atta girl," He said. Angel blushed.

"So you two intend on joining, then," Espio said. He then turned to the other three. "What about you?

"I-I-If I h-have to, t-t-then I-I g-guess…" Lady stammered. Summer yawned.

"Nah. It's too much work…"

Amy frowned.

"Alright, mister. I guess you can just stay here then. Oh, and if Eggman finds out where this place is in the meantime, I guess you'll have to deal with all the robots yourself."

"…And?"

Amy narrowed her eyes. "And if they take the base, I'm flattening you with a hammer the size of a house assuming you aren't captured."

Summer seemed to consider this, before sighing irritably.

"It's a pain if I go, and there might be even more of a pain if I stay…" He groaned. "Fine. Have it your way."

Aurora looked at the exchange happening before her before nodding.

"I'll go as well. If I can be of any use, please, just ask."

"Great!" Knuckles grinned. "Let's get moving, team!"

* * *

Meanwhile, as the Resistance was on its way to the Chemical Plant Zone to steal a shuttle,

"Hmph," A cloaked figure looked around. The only thing visible behind the hood was a pair of deep red eyes that one could argue were glowing. Around them, the scenery was rather artificial. A factory of some kind, obviously. It was also biting cold, and snow was billowing around them. Besides the cloaked figure, a black male experiment was looking around.

"So," He started. "Where do you think we are?"

"We appear to be in the arctic," The cloaked experiment, a female by the sound of her voice, responded. The experiment's eyes narrowed. "The question is, how did we get here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," The black experiment shrugged. "Last I remember, everything went white and there was an odd noise."

Whatever the cloaked experiment thought of that, she didn't convey. She simply turned around to face him.

If she was planning on saying anything, she was cut off by the sound of a roaring engine above. Looking up, the two saw some kind of ship flying overhead.

"A ship?" The black experiment looked confused.

The cloaked experiment didn't respond, instead narrowing her eyes at where it had gone, as if she had noticed something off about it. Then, she sighed in irritation.

"We have company," The cloaked experiment said, turning around. The black experiment followed her gaze and discovered a small army of robots right behind them.

"Heh," He smirked, a dark aura beginning to emanate from his body. "Might as well have a workout, right?"

"I've been feeling rather irritated by whatever's going on here," The cloaked experiment said simply. Then, a blue scythe materialized in her paws, and an aura of cold began to waft off of her. "These heaps of metal should do well to help me vent."

With that, the two experiments charged into the horde.

* * *

Shortly after landing, Stitch and Angel took off. Running down a large wavy pipe, they saw a large platform, covered in badniks. Without having to think, they leaped over in order to engage them, Angel with her hammer (which she was glad she'd grabbed; her powers didn't work here) and Stitch with his Wispon. As the two destroyed the robots, they heard Espio speak over the comm link.

"Espio here. We're engaging enemy forces in the orbital tunnel. I think we can hold them off for now."

"Alright," Angel started. "Now we'll-"

Espio cut her off, sounding slightly panicked.

"No, wait! Watch out! The Masked One is here. The monster who took down Sonic!"

"M-Monster…?" Lady squeaked. She sounded like she was on the verge of freaking out.

"Great, just great…" Summer sighed. "More work…"

Stitch and Angel both paled at the chameleon's words. They remembered their "battle" with the masked figure all too well. As if sensing the incoming panic, Vector came in on the comm-link.

"Stay focused, rookies! We're off to find a shuttle!"

"We're NOT rookies!" Stitch roared into the comm-link, immediately forgetting his fear.

"Focus on the enemies, please," Angel sighed, before effortlessly sending three robots flying off the path with a swing of her hammer.

"Sorry!" Stitch grinned sheepishly, holding out his Wispon. A jet of flame saw the next wave of robots explode into burning rubble.

As the two took off running, they saw several rows of rings ahead of them. Shrugging, they grabbed a few of them before leaping onto a spring. The spring launched them onto a platform just above, where many more waves of robots were waiting.

"Cannon fodder!" Stitch cheered, pulling the trigger of his Wispon. Without them slowing down, the flames easily cut a path right through the advancing Egg Pawns and onto another spring that sent them flying forward a short distance, right in the middle of two groups of robots.

"Was that intentional?" Angel asked, readying her hammer. Stitch shrugged, before the two of them dashed in opposite directions to focus on each group of robots separately. One attempted to tackle Stitch, only for the blue experiment to turn around and punch it, sending it flying towards Angel, who, upon seeing it, quickly turned around. Using her hammer as a bat, she sent it flying into another Egg Pawn and sent both of them flying off of the path and into the water below.

"Nice!" Stitch laughed as the two moved forward once again, this time climbing up a vertical wall that lead them to what they were told were called "dash panels". Running over the panels, they blasted forward with incredible speed, moving through a loop-de-loop before dashing off of some dash ramps.

"Seriously!" Angel cried out, trying to keep her excitement from leaking out into her voice. "Is there any reason they should have loops like that?"

"Who cares!?" Stitch laughed, grabbing hold of her hand and using his grappling hook to latch onto a pipe overhead. Directing them to land on a nearby platform, they found yet another pack of robots.

Stitch grinned. " _Hasta la vista!_ "

Another jet of flames saw the pack of robots disappear completely.

"You sound like you're having fun," Aurora said over the comm link.

"I still have those destructive impulses," Stitch admitted. "It's nice to let loose a little every so often, you know?"

"It's good that you're letting off steam, but c'mon, let's head in while Espio's team keeps them busy!" Silver said.

"We need a shuttle to get to Sonic in time," Knuckles reminded them. Both Stitch and Angel rolled their eyes.

' _Thanks, Commander Obvious.'_

"Yeah, he's in orbit," Summer sighed. "Unless you can fly straight into the air at escape velocity, of course we're going to need a shuttle."

Knuckles growled slightly in response.

"Knuckles…" Amy warned. The red echidna sighed and continued with whatever he was doing.

Getting back to the matter at hand, directly behind where the robots had been was a dash panel leading to a pair of rails. Shrugging, Stitch grabbed Angel's hand and the two of them blasted down the rail, picking up some more rings as they did so.

The rails brought them to another platform, where a Red Wisp was waiting for them. Running up to it, the Wisp nodded at them before flying into Stitch's Wispon before reappearing behind them. The weapon began to glow red.

" _BURST!"_

A cursory glance upwards told them that there were rings just above them, leading to another platform just ahead.

Grabbing Angel's hand once again, Stitch aimed his Wispon at the ground and pulled the trigger.

The two experiments bounced through the air on a series of explosions, grabbing the rings they came across as they moved towards the platform. While in the air, a series of Buzz Bombers attempted to ambush them. Stitch let go of both Angel and the trigger, allowing them to get the drop on the two robots. Angel smashed it down towards the ground, while Stitch blasted it with the Wispon's flamethrower feature. Then, Stitch grabbed Angel's hand once again and aimed down again.

 _*Click*_

Nothing happened.

"…Stitch?" Angel asked with a deadpan expression.

"Yeah?"

"I think it ran out of energy."

"I noticed."

Frantically looking around, Stitch saw another pipe, just in reach of his grappling hook. Without hesitation, he launched his hook at it, just managing to secure themselves onto it before swinging towards their destination.

"That was close…" Angel sighed in relief.

"Ih…" Stitch nodded as the two of them reached the platform. "Wispons only stay charged for a short period of time after being activated. I'll have to remember that…"

That was when the two of them heard a low rumbling noise.

"Hey, that sounds like a freight train," Vector noted. Amy piped in.

"It's carrying supplies. I don't think it's armed or anything."

"Alright, let's hitch a ride!" Stitch grinned. Angel's ears drooped and she sweatdropped.

"Stitchie, I don't think that's a good id-" Angel was cut off when Stitch grabbed her and leaped off of a spring that was just ahead of them, launching them forward a great distance. Sure enough, there was a freight train, just passing by. Fortunately, the spring had launched them in such a way that they were able to land on top of it.

Unfortunately, said spring had also launched them at a train that was just moments shy of entering an extremely narrow tunnel. Stitch could probably fit through it with some effort. Angel, not so much.

"Uh…" Angel stared at the tiny opening before frantically turning her head and trying to find some way out of the situation.

"There!" She shouted. "There's a pipe you can latch onto!"

"On it!" Stitch shouted, extending the grappling hook again. They were able to pull themselves off of the train just before they could hit the wall. However, before they could swing to the next platform, a concerned voice came in over the intercom.

"Be careful! The Masked One is trying something!" Espio warned.

No sooner had he spoken, everything became engulfed in red, and a distorted garbling noise filled the air. Neither Stitch nor Angel had time to react before suddenly being deposited on another platform, some distance it seemed from where they had been.

"W-What was that?" Lady Kuroko panicked over the comm link.

"Hey! I don't remember being here!" Charmy shouted.

"I think I'm gonna lose my lunch…" Vector groaned.

"If you dare throw up over the comm link, I swear I'm gonna-" Amy began to threaten him, only for Silver to interrupt.

"Looks like we all got dumped in different parts of the chemical plant," He observed. "Let's stick to the plan and regroup at the launch bay!"

"I'm already here," Summer yawned. "You people are all so slow, I think I'll take a nap."

"Summer, please behave…" Aurora pleaded.

"Well…" Angel muttered as she and Stitch recovered and went on the move again. "That was odd…"

Stitch nodded. "No kidding… Still, we gotta head to the launch bay, right? That's the plan."

The two of them quickly came across a spring which sent them straight up onto a small platform that was opposite of the direction they had been going. Running across it, they found a metal pole sticking out of the wall, allowing them to leap up on top of it. Turning around, they saw another wave of badniks, waiting to be destroyed.

Which is what the two of them proceeded to do, tearing through them without stopping.

"Minions", Stitch joked. "Reliable, cheap, and evil. Pick any two."

"Well," Angel grinned. "Eggman obviously chose 'cheap and evil'."

The end of the pathway saw them leap onto a series of dash rings that shot them onto a large ramp, which then proceeded to launch them through three more dash rings before finally ending on a series of rails.

As they landed and began to slide down the rails, taking care to avoid several spike traps along the way, Amy spoke up over the comm link.

"All quiet and the launch pad for now," She observed. "Let's grab a shuttle now before they sound the alarm."

"Already handled," Summer yawned. "Lady Kuroko and I took care of them."

"Perfect!" Vector said. "They won't mind if we borrow this for a while."

"Hurry it up, rookies! Get outta there as soon as everyone's aboard! Step on it!"

Stitch groaned as he and Angel went soaring through a series of dash rings. "Why does he keep calling us that?"

"Well, I suppose that, technically, we ARE the rookies," Angel reminded him. "I mean, we're new to all of this, ri- Hey, Stitchie, do you see that?"

"See what?" Stitch asked as the two began to descend.

"There, just outside the ship. I think I see someone," Angel pointed.

Stitch narrowed his eyes and zoomed in on where Angel was pointed. As soon as he did, he groaned once again, even more loudly than before.

"Great, just great…"

"What is it?" Angel asked, suddenly feeling nervous. They were moments away from landing. Stitch looked over and regarded her with a look that screamed 'This is gonna suck'.

"It's Slang."

* * *

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, a small workshop stood a short distance from an old and derelict train station. This workshop was not unique. It was one of many scattered across the world in various locations. However, this workshop was older than most of them. Within the workshop, two experiments were inside, examining it.

"OW!" A red-orange experiment yelped when a wrench fell on his head and sent him flat to the floor. "That HURT!"

"Huh?" Another experiment, this one a blue one with long antennae and goggles, wondered as she turned around to look at the source of the sound, only to find her companion, face down on the ground with a large red bump on his head where the wrench had hit him.

"Ugh…" The red orange one muttered, rubbing the bump on his head.

"Are you okay?" The blue one asked.

"…Yeah, I think, but damn, that hurts…"

"You'll be okay," The blue one sweatdropped at his constant complaining. She then turned to the instruments laying around the room. "Now, let's see…"

The red-orange experiment stood back up, still rubbing his head. As the lump subsided, he looked around at the tiny workshop the two were in.

"I don't get why you wanted to come in here," He remarked.

"Well," The blue one stopped what she was doing and turned to face him. "Why not? We have no idea where we are, and this workshop was the only thing here besides what I'm guessing is that old train station. If we're going to figure out where we are, I figured we'd be able to get an idea from here."

She paused.

"…Then again, you're not really concerned about that, are you?"

"Nah," The red orange one replied. "I'm more interested in what's under this tarp," The then turned around and walked over to the aforementioned tarp, which was covering a large object in the middle of the workshop.

Pulling it off, he found a red World War I bomber, with yellow and white stripes, a star-and-circle emblem painted onto the tail, and another emblem, looking like a pair of fox tails painted onto the wings. The word 'SONIC' was written on the sides of the fuselage as well.

"Now, THIS I like…" The red one grinned and climbed into the pilot's seat. Or, he would have if the blue experiment hadn't grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back down to the ground.

"Hey!" He turned to her. She harrumphed.

"We're not here to _steal_ , you crazy bastard," She scolded.

"Then what are we HERE for?"

"I just told you! We're just looking around," The blue one glared, her eyes glowing red for a moment before flickering back to normal, before continuing her investigation. "Wow, whoever built this is years ahead of the rest of E-arth."

"What do you mean?" The red one peered over her shoulder.

"Look at this," She picked a small device up off the shelf and presented it to him.

"…Okay, what is it?" The red one didn't seem very interested.

"I don't know," She admitted, before replacing it. "That's what makes this… Hey, are those numbers changing?"

"What?"

"There," She pointed at what looked like some kind of yellow device with a large screen, which appeared to be switched on. The numbers on the screen were:

128 : 384 : 398 : 761 : 473 : 379 : 96 : 37 : 10

However, the numbers began to flicker, before slowly changing to:

131 : 387 : 394 : 760 : 475 : 385 : 92 : 40 : 06

"What are those, some kinda coordinates?" The red one looked over, now appearing somewhat interested.

"Again, I don't know…" The blue one looked over. "But, somehow, that does NOT give me a good feeling…"

* * *

 **(Slowly comes out of hiding) T-There, I finished it! See? I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'm gonna try to get another one out soon! I promise! Really!**


	4. A Chance Encounter - Boss 1: Chaos 2

**Alright! Time for a change in perspective! The last three chapters have been focusing on The Resistance, and now, it's time to focus on someone new. It's pretty obvious who I'm referring to if you've played Sonic Forces, so let's cut to the chase, shall we?**

* * *

As the Resistance was busy hijacking one of Eggman's shuttles, two experiments were wandering the ruined city. These two were different from the ones that had encountered the Resistance, namely in that they were extremely young-looking. One of them appeared just a little older than the other. This one was primarily red-colored and was carrying around a large teddy bear. The other one, who was light blue, appeared more reptilian, with aqua-colored hair.

"Wow, this place is really torn up. Right, Teddy?" The red one stopped as she addressed the teddy bear. This prompted the second experiment to stop as well and start looking around at her surroundings. Something seemed to catch her attention.

"Fire," The younger one said, pointing at one of the burning buildings.

"Yeah?" The older one asked. The younger one then pointed at her.

"Pyro!" She said, looking at her expectantly.

The red one, now identified as 'Pyro', simply laughed a little.

"Well, yeah, it is kinda my name…" Pyro looked around. "Hey, you got any idea where we are?"

The younger one simply shook her head. Looking around, she started to sniffle a little bit.

"I want my mommy…" The sky above them began to darken, and the wind started to pick up. Unseen to them, the nearby lake began to ripple as waves began to form on its surface.

Before Pyro could say anything to try and cheer her friend up, however, she seemed to perk up, as if she heard something. Pyro heard it as well.

"I think someone's over there," Pyro realized. "C'mon, let's go see!"

Pyro ran over towards the source of the noise, while the younger experiment hobbled after her.

Miles Prower, better known as "Tails" by his friends, was a smart kid. Only nine, and already, he could reprogram a supercomputer with toothpicks and dishwashing detergent, built super-charged planes that could run on Chaos Energy, a multipurpose handheld device, amongst other things.

He didn't feel like that right at this moment, however. Right now, he felt _helpless. Defeated._

He'd felt this way for the last six months, ever since that masked monster defeated Sonic…

Tails shook his head. He couldn't think about that right now. He had to focus on now. And now, he was trying to fix unsuccessfully a certain E-series robot that he'd found in the ruins of the city.

"That should've done it…" Tails sighed sadly, stepping away from Omega. "I couldn't figure it out for you, buddy… I'm sorry I wasn't smart enough…"

As he lamented his inability to repair Omega, the two experiments turned the corner and saw him. The younger experiment's eyes sparkled.

"Fluffy tails!" She laughed, hobbling towards him. Tails, for his part, didn't notice the little monster coming towards him until he felt something grab hold of his twin namesakes. He yelped in surprise.

"H-Hey!" He turned his head sharply, only to find the little experiment staring back at him. She gave him a big, adorable smile.

"…Oh," Tails looked a bit sheepish. "S-Sorry, thought you were… Um…"

He looked a little closer at her. She didn't look like any one species he'd ever seen.

"…What ARE you, exactly?" He asked, not really expecting an answer based on her apparent age. He was surprised when he got one, though not from the one holding his tails.

"She's Waterita, but everyone calls her Rita," Pyro responded, walking up to the young fox. "And I'm Pyro."

"Waterita and Pyro, huh?" Tails looked down at the little experiment playing with his tails. "So, water and fire, huh?"

Pyro shrugged before asking, "And who are you?"

"Um…" Tails scratched the back of his head. "Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails."

"I wonder why?" Pyro sarcastically noted, eying the two fluffy tails that Rita was happily playing with. Tails cleared his throat.

"Um, it's nice to meet you two, but you didn't really answer my question. You don't really look like any one species from around here, so if you don't mind me asking, what are you exactly?"

"Oh," Pyro rubbed the back of her head. "Well, it's complicated."

"I can handle complicated," Tails shrugged. Having an IQ of around 300 had its perks, after all.

"Well…" Pyro started. "Long story short, we're genetic experiments from another planet."

"Oh, that's it?" Tails said. "I guess that explains your guys' looks."

"You don't sound very surprised," Pyro noted. Tails shrugged.

"Well, when you…" Tails trailed off. A flicker of movement told him there was something approaching them. Rita and Pyro looked over at what he was looking at, and found a strange, humanoid being, made entirely of water, lumbering towards them.

"W-Woah, Chaos…!" Tails backed up nervously. He then noticed that Chaos looked more muscular than he remembered, with horns, and bone-like structures in his hands. Within Chaos' palms, two Chaos Emeralds were glimmering brightly.

' _It's Chaos' second form!'_ He realised with a start. Where Eggman had found the emeralds, he wasn't sure, but the implications were disturbing, to say the least.

"Is he a bad guy?" Pyro asked. She seemed to tense up a little, with her grip on Teddy becoming a little tighter and the temperature around her rising a little bit.

"H-He's not supposed to be…" Tails said. "But…"

' _I'm not scared…'_ Tails' eyes widened. Memories began to flash in his mind. _'I'm not scared…!'_

He remembered his battle against Eggman in Station Square. He remembered defusing the missile the rotund scientist had fired at the city in a last-ditch effort to destroy it. And even before that, he remembered battling against Chaos 4 along with Sonic and Knuckles.

' _I can't rely on Sonic forever…'_

It's a lesson he had taught himself so long ago. However, in the time following then, he had grown complacent.

He clenched his fists.

' _I can do this!'_

…He needed to change that.

Sonic wasn't here. He knew that. He also knew that Sonic would have wanted him to fight for himself; to be the hero the world needed in his stead.

With that in mind, Tails stepped forward defiantly, causing Pyro to look at him and Rita to let go of his tails in mild surprise.

"I'm not afraid of you!" He declared. He lowered into a stance, his tails swishing around in anticipation.

In response, the watery monster stepped forward as well, accentuated with a hellish screech that made all who were present cringe. Tails held his arm out, blocking off both Pyro and Rita.

"Stand back, you two," He said. "I'll handle him!"

Pyro blinked. The young fox's temperament seemed to have done a 180, having gone from timid and shaking, to defiantly standing between them and the watery monster before them.

If he were to be honest, Tails wasn't sure how much he believed his own words. However, it was too late for him to reconsider. Sonic would have wanted him to fight and stand up for himself, and that's exactly what he was gonna do!

Tails jumped forward, curling into a concussive ball and went to slam Chaos in his exposed brain. The mutated Chao realized this, however, smacking the young kitsune away. Shortly into his impromptu flight, Tails recovered and summoned his Energy Ball arm cannon.

Taking aim, he fired a large blast at Chaos. As expected, the monster raised its arms to defend against it, leaving it vulnerable to Tails' Magic Upper, which burst from the ground beneath Chaos' feet, decking it square in where his jaw should be.

"Boing!" Rita said, raising her tiny fist the same way the spring-loaded weapon did.

This did no damage, of course, as Chaos' watery body could absorb the damage. It did, however, momentarily send Chaos reeling slightly, which is all Tails needed to rev up again and strike Chaos' brain.

The effect was immediate; Chaos' body melted into a large sphere of water, with the two Chaos Emeralds becoming enveloped in bright light. The large sphere came bounding after Tails, prompting the young fox to leap into the air and begin spinning his tails.

"Uh…" Pyro blinked. "He's flying with his tails? Wait, why am I surprised by this?"

"Gotcha!" Tails shouted as soon as Chaos' body returned to normal. He launched himself feet first at Chaos' head. Chaos, however, responded to the oncoming attack by swiping upwards, catching Tails by surprise and sending him into the air.

Tails yelped in surprise and pain, before retaliating with his Energy Ball cannon. Chaos was struck in the stomach, but simply shrugged off the attack. He then threw his claws at Tails, extending his arm to do so. Tails avoided the strike before landing on Chaos' arm. Curling into a ball again, he blasted down Chaos' arm faster than the God of Destruction could retaliate, allowing him to strike Chaos' brain a second time.

Once again, Chaos' body melted down, only this time, it became a puddle on the ground, with the two emeralds floating above it. Then, the puddle expanded rapidly, forcing Tails into the air to evade. Pyro noticed the attack and, although certain it wouldn't reach them, stepped backwards to avoid it, though Rita didn't respond to it at all.

As soon as the small deluge disappeared, Tails moved in to land, only for the reformed Chaos to rush him. Tails quickly leaped out of the way, allowing his Big Hand to emerge from the ground and flick Chaos' skull.

As if by clockwork, Chaos' body split apart, this time remaining as a large puddle with the two emeralds floating around it. Tails stared at it suspiciously, trying to tell if Chaos was planning something, or had simply been knocked unconscious. Deciding it was the latter, Tails allowed himself to land. He was breathing slightly harder, but otherwise seemed perfectly fine.

"I… I did it…" He said, sounding slightly shocked. He turned back to the two experiments. Rita was clapping happily, clearly entertained by the display. Pyro seemed impressed as well, walking up to him. She regarded him quietly for a few seconds, before laughing happily.

"Take that, ya watery bastard!" She cheered. Tails stared at her for a moment.

"Um… You do know that's a bad word, right…?"

"Bah!" Pyro said, playfully sticking her tongue out. "I can say whatever I want! Mommy isn't here to tell me not to."

"Well…" Tails rubbed the back of his head. "Can I just ask you to keep it to a minimum? I mean, your friend there is only learning to talk, right?"

Pyro shrugged.

"Experiments' brains develop differently from E-arthlings," Pyro explained. Tails raised an eyebrow.

' _E-arth? Oh, I get it. She's just mispronouncing 'Earth'. And given her grasp on the language, I'm gonna assume that she's not the only one to do that,'_ Tails thought, before shrugging.

"Well," He said. "I guess that makes sense…"

"Yeah, so – hey is that thing still moving?" Pyro pointed. Tails turned around in alarm. Sure enough, Chaos was attempting to reform himself from the puddle.

"A-Are you kidding me!?" Tails took a step back before resummoning his cannon. "How much more can this guy take!?"

Unbeknownst to Tails, as Chaos was reforming, a dark mass materialized just behind a wall, within Chaos field of vision but entirely cut off from Tails' and the two experiments.

To their surprise, Chaos turned his head as his body was reforming to face whatever this dark mass was.

Then, to Chaos' surprise this time, a blue blur emerged from the dark mass and slammed into his head, causing him to break into multiple large puddles once more.

Tails' eyes widened as the blue figure landed directly in front of them.

"S-Sonic…? You're… You're alive!" He gawked, sounding both overjoyed and surprised. Then, he noticed something. This Sonic looked younger, his fur a lighter shade of blue, and his eyes were charcoal black. "Wait…"

Sonic(?) looked at him, seeming to be slightly confused.

"Oh!" Tails realized. "You're that Sonic from another dimension, aren't you?"

Sonic, now identified as Classic Sonic, nodded in confirmation.

Rita and Pyro simply looked at the two in confusion. The words "another dimension" seemed to strike a chord with Pyro, however.

' _Another dimension, huh…?'_ Pyro thought, looking around. Now that she was thinking about it, where, exactly _were_ they? Not in Kokauwa Town, that was for sure.

"Right, right, right, that makes sense," Tails mused. "…I think. Do you know how you got here?"

Classic Sonic simply shrugged. It didn't seem that he had a clue, either. Tails, however thought he might have an idea. He didn't have a complete picture, but the strange readings he had gotten from the masked figure six months ago, plus the events that had just transpired, were enough to build some theories.

"Maybe whatever power Eggman's using is affecting other dimensions," Tails guessed. Pyro would have laughed at the name 'Eggman' if Tails hadn't effectively voiced her thoughts for her.

"…Which might work to our advantage!" Tails smacked his fist into his open palm. "I mean, everything happens for a reason, right? That might be why you're here! That might also be why you two are here!" He turned to look at Pyro and Waterita. Classic Sonic finally seemed to notice them as well and gave them a friendly wave. Rita waved back enthusiastically.

"Well, either way, it's good to have you here, Sonic. Heck, it's good to have any Sonic!" Tails said, positively beaming. Pyro and Classic Sonic shared the same confused expression.

While the group was talking, Chaos struggled to pull himself back together. The young mechanic had done a surprising number on him, and the blow to his head that Classic Sonic had delivered hadn't exactly made his condition any better.

Still, Chaos managed to reform his head and torso with effort, though his arms were currently limited to useless stubs. He had two emeralds, and despite the energy that they held being nothing compared to the might that all seven would grant him, it was enough to supercharge all of his abilities, including his passive healing. He managed to reform his limbs and stood up, ready to challenge them once more.

Just as they wrapped up their conversation, the quartet noticed that Chaos was once again standing at his full height, seemingly intent on to continuing the battle. Tails groaned.

"Again!?" He shouted, with a note of exasperation etched into his voice. "Yeesh! I guess that's the power of two Chaos Emeralds, huh?"

"Chaos Emeralds…?" Pyro repeated, now noticing the glowing jewels in Chaos' palms. Rita did as well and began staring at them earnestly.

Tails and Classic Sonic both lowered into combat-ready stances, rearing to charge at their opponent.

"His weakness is his brain," Tails instructed. "If we can hit it enough times, it'll disrupt his ability to maintain his body!"

Classic Sonic nodded. Crouching down, the blue hedgehog began to rev up a Spin Dash before launching himself at Chaos' head at high speed. Realizing this, Chaos threw up its arms to defend itself, causing Classic Sonic to bounce off a blue, glowing barrier of energy that materialized before him.

The moment Chaos' arms went down, Tails came in with his own Spin Dash, striking Chaos in the head.

Enraged and in pain, the beast split its body into several blobs of water than began to launch themselves at the duo. Tails and Classic Sonic took off in opposite directions to avoid them, with Tails using his tails to propel himself forward.

"Keep moving!" Tails shouted, weaving in and out of the way of the blasts of water. Classic Sonic nodded in the affirmative, mirroring Tails' movements. The globs of water then began to coalesce, beginning to form Chaos' image once again. Tails and Classic Sonic both noticed, before sharply turning and racing towards Chaos.

Tails resummoned his Energy Ball and began firing a volley of shots at the monster as Classic Sonic leaped into the air and blasted towards him. Chaos responded by throwing its claws at the fox, causing Tails to jump back to avoid it. This left Chaos open, however, and Classic Sonic took the opportunity to leap on his head.

Chaos roared in pain as his body dissolved into a blob of water. The blob then fired off several offshoots of itself in all directions. Classic Sonic easily evaded the attack. Tails, however, was grabbed by one of the watery tendrils.

"Hey! I'm stuck!" He shouted as Chaos began reeling him in. Classic Sonic reacted immediately, revving up before Spin Dashing right through the liquid appendage, causing it to drop its mark.

Chaos reformed and, in a fit of rage, charged the duo.

Which, by the way, was a big mistake.

Why? Because it left his very exposed brain open to a sudden strike from Tails' Magic Hook, which slammed into Chaos' brain so hard that the monster was sent flying back a short distance before he impacted the ground, causing him to split apart into several motionless globs of water.

"Is it over?" Tails panted slightly harder now, looking over his and Classic Sonic's handiwork. Classic Sonic stared at the downed monster before responded with a thumbs up and a confident smile.

"Yeah… Guess we did…" Tails said, turning to face him. "He couldn't just shrug off that many hits to his brain…"

Pyro facepalmed.

' _Why'd you say that?'_ She groaned mentally. _'You jinxed it. Now he's gonna get right back up again.'_

Classic Sonic turned to Tails, before motioning towards Pyro and Rita, who seemed to be staring at something.

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce you guys…" Tails smiled sheepishly. "Sonic, these two are Rita and Pyro. Apparently, they're aliens of some sort."

Classic Sonic barely seemed phased by that reveal at all. Instead, he gave another friendly wave.

"And you two," Tails turned to Pyro and Rita. "This is my friend Sonic. Well, he's a younger Sonic from another dimension, anyway."

"Hi," Pyro waved, before looking at her teddy bear. "What was that, Teddy? You think we're from another dimension too?"

"Huh?" Tails regarded her with confusion. "You think you're from another dimension as well?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, I was just at home, with Catty and Kuro, when, outta nowhere, everything just went all white, and there was this weird noise…"

As the young red experiment began to explain what had happened, Chaos' body began to rebuild itself as Pyro anticipated, albeit much more slowly than before. As his head and torso slowly began to reform, Chaos began to slowly drag his half-formed body towards Tails and Classic Sonic, hoping to attack them from behind.

If only Waterita hadn't noticed him.

The little experiment hobbled up to the weakened mutant, her green-blue eyes focused on his hands. She was staring directly at the Chaos Emeralds. To her, in Chaos' hands were two shiny rocks, and like all babies would be, she was captivated by them. If only there wasn't a haze of Chaos Energy-infused water and bone separating her from them.

For a Water Demon like her, that was no problem whatsoever.

Rita proceeded to push her tiny hands against Chaos' body. Chaos, at first, felt no need for concern. He was made of liquid Chaos Energy, and she was a baby. What could she possibly-?

Chaos reeled with alarm when Rita's eyes began to glow and her hands suddenly began to merge with Chaos' body. Chaos attempted to back away, only for Rita to take a few tiny steps forward. Chaos began to shrink, like gelatine being slurped off of a spoon. Rita moved forward again, causing more of Chaos' body to be siphoned off of him and into the little experiment, whose eyes began to glow even brighter.

Classic Sonic was the first to notice. The blue hedgehog had noticed that the young demon had disappeared from his view and had started to look around to see where she was. When he saw her seemingly absorbing Chaos into her body, he tapped Tails' shoulder.

"Huh?" Tails asked, looking at Classic Sonic. "What is it, Sonic?"

Classic Sonic pointed at the spectacle behind them. When Tails turned to look, Chaos' body had been reduced to about half of its former size. Tails' jaw dropped.

"W-Woah…!" He gasped. "Is she… _absorbing_ Chaos!? H-How…!?"

Pyro noticed and looked at her fellow experiment.

"Well, she IS a Water Demon, after all, and that guy's made of water, right?" She said, matter-of-factly. Tails and Classic Sonic simply stared at her, as if she'd grown a second head. "…What? It's true, ya know."

"A Water Demon…?" Tails said, looking back at the little girl. Chaos' body was now almost as small as Rita herself and was still struggling to get away from her, to no avail. "…You know, somehow, I'm not as surprised by that as I really should be."

Classic Sonic shrugged. He started to move towards Rita, just as Chaos disappeared altogether, having been absorbed by the little girl's body. In his place, two Chaos Emeralds, one light blue and one red, were lying on the ground, glimmering in the setting sun. Rita clapped with delight, before hobbling towards the light blue one.

"Shiny!" She laughed, picking it up and holding it up for all to see. Classic Sonic picked up the red one, and looked back at Tails and Pyro, shrugging as he did so.

"She probably saw them in Chaos' hands and wanted to take a closer look," Tails guessed, looking at Rita. "Babies do like shiny things, right?"

Pyro stepped forward

"You called those things 'Chaos Emeralds', right?" Pyro asked, inspecting the red stone in Classic Sonic's hand. "Aren't emeralds supposed to be green?"

"Well, yeah…" Tails scratched his head. "Truth be told, no one really knows who named them. Given how ancient they are, it's not a stretch to assume that they didn't know that at the time."

Pyro just shrugged. "Also, why did that water thing have two of them?"

"Well, if I had to guess, Eggman-" Tails was abruptly cut off when Pyro finally burst out laughing at how ridiculous that name was.

"Okay, c'mon… _Eggman_? _Really_?" She asked, trying her hardest not to fall over. Classic Sonic laughed silently in agreement. Tails chuckled a little as well.

"Yeah, we came up with that nickname a while ago," He admitted. "Anyway, I bet that in the wake of his takeover, Eggman was able to find all of them and gave two of them to Chaos."

Glancing over at Rita, they found that she was still happily playing with the light blue stone, giggling to herself.

"How many are there?" Pyro asked, curious.

"There's seven," Tails explained. "They've helped us out in the past, and I'll bet we're gonna need all seven of them to take down Eggman and whoever his new partner is."

Classic Sonic nodded, before turning his head and looking around.

"Hm?" Tails turned to him. "Oh, you're wondering where Eggman is, right?"

Classic Sonic nodded. Tails pulled out his Miles Electric.

"If Chaos had two of them, my best guess is that Eggman might be using the other five. And because we have two, we can track the others!" Tails held his hand out to Classic Sonic, who handed him the Chaos Emerald. The young mechanic then inserted the emerald into the top of the device, which began to beep rhythmically. Pyro tilted her head quizzically.

"How does that let you track them?" She asked, honestly curious.

"The Chaos Emeralds act almost like a set of magnets in respect to each other," Tails explained. "They attract each other, and they can repel each other as well. If you have one, you can use that attraction to locate the others."

Pyro nodded, understanding. So, they were like magnets. Interesting.

"Okay, I'm detecting one emerald right next to us. That's the one Rita's playing with. And there seems to be another just ahead," Tails pointed out towards the city. Classic Sonic and Pyro followed his finger. "I'm also detecting Eggman's signature in that direction as well, which confirms that he at least has one on his person."

Putting the Miles Electric away, Tails turned to Classic Sonic.

"Sonic, can you clear the path for us? Rita might've been able to finish Chaos, but it doesn't look like she can run all that well. I don't want to have her or Pyro wander into a bunch of robots on the way."

Classic Sonic nodded. Pyro just scoffed.

"Oh, c'mon. I've got fire powers. I can handle a couple of robots, no problem," She said, before what Tails said clicked. "Wait, you're taking us with you?"

"Why shouldn't we?" Tails shot back. "It's not like we can just leave you two alone in a warzone like this."

"Like I said, I can take care of myself," Pyro crossed her little arms. Classic Sonic and Tails both lowered their eyelids.

"…You'd rather stay here with those?" Tails asked, pointing. Pyro followed his finger, and saw, bar none, the single biggest robot she had ever seen, tearing a destructive swath through the city. The robot's single eye began to glow brightly, before firing a laser that cut through several apartment buildings. She stared at it blankly for a few seconds, then back at her teddy bear.

"…Teddy says that we should go with you," She said, simply.

"Teddy's pretty smart, then," Tails concurred, before turning to Classic Sonic, who gave him a thumbs up.

"Alright, Sonic! Let's go!" Tails declared. Classic Sonic nodded, before taking off at breakneck speed into the city.

The race to find Eggman and gather the seven Chaos Emeralds had begun.

* * *

"He's up there!"

"Fight back!"

The sound of energy weapons and standard firearms permeated the air, mixed with the shouts of a large number of combatants.

A group of animal and human soldiers were firing upon a masked figure, hovering a short distance above them. The figure scoffed. All of shots fired at him were either missing outright or failed to have any effect on his body.

"Your savior is no more, and still you resist…?" He questioned, holding up his hand. A beam of red energy shot from his hand as he moved it to the side, dragging the beam across the soldiers fired at them. All of them shouted in confusion and pain as they were overtaken by the explosions that followed.

Behind them, two experiments were hiding from the masked figure. A sandy yellow experiment and a green one that had more than a passing resemblance to Angel. A particular humanoid alien, a very large one with four eyes, stood behind them. He was staring at what appeared to be a scanner of a sort.

The yellow experiment looked out.

"G-Geez… That guy took all of 'em out just like that…" He gulped as a white Wispon landed right next to him. The green one picked up the weapon and regarded it with curiosity.

"Jumba cannot get read on floating masked creature," the alien, identifying himself as Jumba noticed as he shook the scanner.

"Huh?" The yellow experiment turned to face him. "Whaddya mean by that, doc?"

"Jumba means exactly what Jumba says, 625. Am unable to make sense of data," He showed the two experiments the screen. There was what appeared to be random garbage being displayed, with each reading immediately being contradicted by another.

In short, nothing about what Jumba was reading made any sense whatsoever, even to an experiment who could outthink a supercomputer.

"Woah," 625 said. "The heck's up with this guy?"

"Not a clue. But you know what? Who cares?" The green experiment started, before shoving the weapon into 625's hands.

"H-Hey, Clo! What're you-?" The yellow one began to ask before she raced out of their hiding spot.

"Taking that guy on! What else?" She shouted, running in front of the masked figure's field of vision.

"Oh? It seems that there are more weaklings that wish to die," He said, his distorted and echoing voice sounding almost bored. The green experiment, who was named Clover, simply gave him a rather audacious grin.

"Weaklings, huh? We'll see about that!" Still grinning, she turned to where the yellow experiment was.

"C'mon, Zacky!" She shouted. "Let's teach this masked clown a lesson!"

"Am unsure if this is wise decision, 623," Jumba said, staring at his scanner. "Jumba has no idea what capabilities this creature is having."

"Let's just wing it!" Clover responded, running back over, grabbing Zack's hand, and then dragged him over to where she had been.

"Oh?" The masked figure said in mock intrigue. "You wish for your pathetic friends to die alongside you? I've underestimated the foolishness of the weak."

' _Ego, much?'_ Zack thought to himself. Clover looked at him expectantly.

"Well? C'mon! Zap 'em!" She said. Zack stared at her for a few seconds, as if trying to determine if she was serious. Before he could speak, however, an explosion at their feet sent both of them stumbling back onto their asses. The masked figure was holding out his palm, which was glowing slightly brighter than the rest of him.

"I am in a generous mood," He said. "If you give in to your fear and flee screaming, I'll let you live."

' _That's soundin' pretty good right about now,'_ Zack turned to Clover. _Then again, if I do, she'll probably never let me hear the end of it.'_

"Well? Fight and die, or flee with your lives. The choice is yours," the masked figure said, sounding impatient.

Making up his mind, Zack shakily raised the Wispon in his hands, aimed at the masked figure, and pulled the trigger.

* * *

 **Yes, I am evil. We end this chapter on a cliffhanger! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 **For anyone who's confused, and I imagine some of you are, in Mystical Raven's AU, 625 is named Zack, though he does respond to Reuben, as it's still part of his name. Confused? Well, you wouldn't be if you read her stories. So, if you haven't seen the note I left on the first chapter, do go and read it.**

 **This chapter went on a bit (read: about a thousand words) longer than I expected. I was originally intending on expanding the Chaos "fight" (read: cutscene) and then having an action segment afterwards, but about midway through it, yeah, not happening. Technically, if I wasn't restricting my word limit as much as I am now, I could, but even narratively, I think it'd work better as the next chapter, so expect to see some Classic Sonic 2D action next time!**


	5. Tracking the Eggman - City: Ghost Town

**And we're back! Don't need to say as much this time, since this chapter is mostly gonna be about Classic Sonic tearing through Ghost Town Zone. Expect lots of Badniks to blow up, haha. Well, that's enough from my slightly demented mind, onwards to the story!**

* * *

"The radar shows that Eggman and his Chaos Emerald are just up ahead," Tails said through the comm link, before adding, "Enemies could be lying in wait, so watch your step. I get the feeling Eggman has some tricks up his sleeve!"

Classic Sonic nodded at Tails' words, before taking off. Running down an incline, Classic Sonic curled into a ball and allowed gravity to pull him forward, collecting a few rings in the process.

Using his forward momentum, he was able to soar over a small gap between the walkway. Continuing on his path, he came across a small downward slope that lead him to another gap that he leapt over, before coming to a steep incline. Uncurling, Classic Sonic ran up the incline before bouncing off a spring into the air, and onto a small floating platform.

"Boing!" Rita said.

"Hey, those look kinda fun!" Pyro admitted. "But, uh, why is that platform just floating like that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Tails said, shrugging.

Ignoring the radio chatter, Classic Sonic jumped off of the platform and onto the nearest roof. Seeing a ramp, he curled into a ball and began revving up. He then Spin Dashed forward, flying off of the ramp and into the air, onto another spring that sent him back into a large pile of Rings.

Collecting a number of them as he fell, he ran into another spring that sent him back in his original direction, giving him a view of the city as he did so. Two fireballs flew into the nearby buildings, causing a series of explosions. Despite that, Classic Sonic was unfazed, effortlessly landing on the next platform, which lead him to a springboard.

Leaping off of it, Classic Sonic landed on a small downward slope. Using his forward momentum, he blazed down the slope and onto a sudden upwards ramp, which yet again lead him to a spring, albeit one that only sent him up a short distance, enough to lead him to a small floating platform.

Spin Jumping off of it, he landed on a walkway and took off running, using the slope to gain momentum in the process. He went through a Star Post and grabbed a few more Rings in the process. Beyond that was a pair of loop-de-loops, which he easily cleared by jumping into the air, revving up as he did so, before taking off.

"Hey, that looks like a new technique!" Tails said, surprised. "…Huh? The 'Drop Dash'? That's interesting. So, you're Spin Dashing as you jump in order to maintain your momentum? That's pretty clever!"

"It also breaks physics," Pyro added.

"Welcome to our world."

Without stopping, Classic Sonic nodded, before continuing onto another ramp that lead him into another small trail of Rings, with a Red Star Ring in the middle of them. Grabbing them all, Classic Sonic found that he was in what appeared to be the remains of the sewer system ("Ew!" Pyro scrunched her nose, to Tails' and Rita's amusement).

Jumping over a small platform, Classic Sonic saw a lone Egg Pawn in the space formed between the platform he had just jumped over and the next one. Without missing a beat, he angled himself so that he'd land on top of it, smashing it instantly and giving himself a small boost that allowed him to clear the next platform.

Noticing a pitfall between himself and the next few platforms, Classic Sonic jumped over it, as well as the next pitfall. The walkway led him to a dash panel that seemed to lead out of the sewers, which he gladly took. Hearing the sound of robots nearby, he Drop Dashed again, propelling him forward with massive speed, allowing him to dash across a corkscrew that allowed him to see the giant Death Egg Robot Sentinels that were devastating the city.

"Big!" Rita said in response. "And lots!"

"This is terrible… They've made a total mess of this place!" Tails noted sadly, before steeling himself. "We have to stop Eggman and end this war quick!"

"So, is this where you make some cheesy 'War is Hell' comment?" Pyro asked.

Classic Sonic rolled his eyes mid-spin as he dashed towards the end of the walkway, which lead through another Star Post, a few more Rings, and to another spring that he could use. Being propelled into the air, he saw another Egg Pawn, which quickly brought out its arm-mounted cannon.

Too little, too late.

In an instant, Classic Sonic rolled right through it, cleaving it clean in half as a fireball destroyed a building behind him. Past it was a small, red platform with two Rings on it. Thinking quickly, Classic Sonic jumped onto it, collecting the Rings, then leaped again, allowing the platform to crumble behind him.

"Huh? It just fell apart?" Pyro asked.

"Yeah, some platforms aren't really that stable," Tails explained. "It's kind of like our universe operates on platforming video game physics sometimes."

Classic Sonic leaped onto a set of springs that launched him up onto the next walkway, which in turn had a dash panel waiting for him. Blasting off from it, he quickly came across a pair of springs, which he quickly jumped onto. Seeing another pair of springs, he manoeuvred towards them, barely managing to launch himself to higher ground.

He was rewarded with another large pile of Rings, along with two Ring Containers, which he promptly smashed. Seeing a few spikes impeding his path, Classic Sonic jumped over them and onto a launch pad, which sent him flying into another trail of Rings that ended with a Red Star Ring.

Running down the next platform, and ignoring a few more explosions, Classic Sonic grabbed a few more Rings before coming across a pair of Buzz Bombers. A Spin Jump effortlessly disposed of them before they could get any shots off, however.

Drop Dashing again, Classic Sonic tore down the next slope, grabbing more Rings in the process, before mowing through a large line of Badniks, a loop-de-loop, another corkscrew, and then another loop-de-loop.

As he blasted down the following slope, Tails spoke up again.

"Be careful, Sonic! I'm detecting a lot of energies besides Eggman, too! Hm… A few of them are stronger than the others… What could they be?"

Classic Sonic gave a puzzled expression as he tore through the last corkscrew and dashed past the Goal Post that signified that he had reached the city limits.

"Huh… Wonder if those are more experiments, like us?" Pyro wondered. Rita's eyes lit up.

"Mommy?" She asked, sounding hopeful. Pyro shrugged.

"Well, if it is your mom, she'd probably be really happy to see you," Tails said, putting away his Miles Electric. _'Considering the state of the town, she's probably worried beyond belief, too…'_

He held out his hands to the two experiments, who simply stared at him with a 'What are you doing?' look.

"Sonic's cleared the path, so it's safe for us to follow him. I'll fly us over there!"

Pyro looked at Rita and nodded, before taking the fox cub's gloved hand, with Rita following suit. Spinning his namesakes, Tails took off, carrying the two with him.

Unbeknownst to them, a lone figure was watching as they took off. The figure was another experiment, who looked rather like an older Rita, whom she was eying.

"That's… Rita!?" The experiment said, sounding surprised before narrowing her eyes. "And that's Pyro, too… Where is that thing taking them?"

As Tails began moving towards Classic Sonic, the experiment raised her eyebrow at how fast he seemed to be moving, before realizing that she would lose sight of him if she stayed where she was. She quickly sped after them in response, wondering where he was taking Pyro and Rita.

As Tails flew across the city with the two young experiments, he attracted the attention of yet another experiment. This one, who was orange and had a scorpion tail, was standing atop the broken remains of one of the Death Egg Robot Sentinels when she spotted him. Curious about who/what she saw, she flew after him, becoming a streak of color as she raced through the air.

* * *

Angel swore that, if she wanted to, she could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

It was to be expected, after all. Stitch and Slang were in the same room, and somehow, hadn't started trying to kill each other on sight. Granted, the murderous expressions they were exchanging (Well, the expression Stitch was wearing; Slang's was hidden by her hood save for her red eyes) were more than enough to show that there was no love lost between the two.

Besides glaring at each other with enough intensity that any lesser being would have probably imploded on the spot, they were also holding their weapons on full display; Stitch was fiddling about with his Burst Wispon, and Slang was holding her scythe.

'… _Subtle,'_ Angel noted sarcastically.

Yes, if it wasn't obvious already, Stitch and Slang _really_ didn't like each other very much.

Actually, it'd be more accurate to say that, outside of the direst of situations, they downright _loathed_ each other. And every other experiment knew it. It wasn't uncommon for other experiments to hide behind something if the two of them were within sight of each other. While it was true that Slang and Fang's interactions tended to garner the same general response, occasionally, one might get a glimpse of some kind of affection for each other in between the bickering and insults.

This was obviously not the case here.

Angel silently wished the other Resistance members were in the room with them. At least then, they'd be more inclined to focus on something else.

As it happened, every other experiment felt the tension. Aurora nervously glanced in between the two, ready to jump in in case one of them actually did get violent. The black experiment, Shadow*, scooted closer to Slang, readying himself to try and hold her back in the event of a confrontation. Lady Kuroko fidgeted nervously, looking like she was seconds away from breaking down entirely. Hell, even Summer had decided it would be wise to scoot a little further away from the two ticking time bombs.

"So…" Shadow started. "You think that we're in an alternate universe of some kind?"

"More-or-less," Stitch said emotionlessly. Angel sighed. Seeing as Stitch wasn't interested in speaking, Aurora decided to continue in his stead.

"We think, well, Stitch thinks, rather, that the strange noise and flash of light we all saw served to relocate all of us to wherever this is," She expressed. "How many of us were caught in it, we can't say, but it's evident that whatever it was, it was likely caused by the one called Dr. Eggman."

That name. For a brief moment, Stitch and Slang's mutual death stares wavered in lieu of it before returning, and Shadow managed a slightly nervous chuckle.

"Dr. Eggman, huh?" He said. "I don't suppose his first name is 'Omelette' or something?"

Angel smiled slightly and briefly, before adopting a more serious expression. "One more thing, Stitch and I saw what we think is the direct cause of this mess."

Everyone, save Stitch and Slang of course, turned to face her in surprise.

"Y-Y-You saw…?" Kuroko stuttered. Angel nodded, closing her eyes as she remembered the scene.

"There were eight gemstones. Seven of them were diamond cut, and were identical to each other save for their color, but the eighth stone was a… What was the word?"

"Icosahedron," Stitch said without looking. "It was an icosahedron ruby."

Summer yawned, leaning back.

"Right… So, some rocks are the reason we're here. That's almost as stupid as their arguing," He said, lazily motioning towards Stitch and Slang. He was met by the room suddenly becoming much colder, leading him to suddenly decide that moving as far away from Slang as possible was a good idea.

Just as things seemed to be about to reach critical levels, relief came in the form of a light-gray furred hedgehog ("Really?" Shadow had asked. Angel insisted that, yes, that's what he was.) walking into the room.

"Alright, guys. Knuckles wanted you to know that we're gonna reach the Death Egg soon," Silver said, either oblivious to or ignoring the situation he'd just walked into.

"So, run this by me again," Summer said, sitting up. "You want us, a group of strangers, to help you save this one guy that you think will make all of your problems disappear?"

Silver rubbed the back of his head.

"…Pretty much, yeah," He admitted. Summer sighed and leaned back again. Silver quickly added, "But, and I'm serious about this, Sonic really IS our best bet at beating Eggman and whoever his new ally is."

"…And what can he do that we can't?" Slang finally spoke, the first time she'd done so since boarding the shuttle.

"Well…" Silver started, only for Amy to barge into the room.

"I'm glad you asked!" She beamed. Everyone sweatdropped.

Before the pink hedgehog could go off on a fangirl tirade, however, Silver intervened.

"I think I can explain, Amy. She just asked for a general idea."

"But…" Amy started, looking around the room. She sighed in defeat. "Fine… When you're done, come to the bridge. Knuckles wanted to go over what our plan is."

Almost inaudibly, but not unnoticed by the experiments' sensitive ears, she added, "…That I've been having to revise for the past thirty minutes…"

Summer groaned in an, 'Oh, great, our leader's an idiot,' sort of way. Everyone else just sweatdropped.

"S-Should we be w-w-worried...?" Kuroko asked, fidgeting. No one really had an answer for that.

Silver cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"As I was saying, Sonic, well, his name kind of gives it away. He's the fastest thing alive, basically," Silver started. Summer was about to speak, though Slang beat him to it.

"So, he moves quickly. Is that it?" She asked, sounding almost bored. Silver sweatdropped once more in response.

"Um, no… There's more to it than that," He said. "While he definitely runs fast, and by 'fast', I mean, 'considers breaking the sound barrier to be a light jog'…"

Everyone blinked.

"I-I'm sorry," Aurora started. "Did you say that he can break the sound barrier?"

"And _casually_ at that?" Shadow asked.

"All hedgehogs can, technically," Silver said. "The 'reaching the sound barrier' part, I mean. Super speed is innate to our species. What makes Sonic unique is that he can move so much faster than the norm. No one really knows HOW fast he actually is, but he's been observed to be able to go high-hypersonic before."

"High-hypersonic…?" Angel stared.

"That's… Ten to twenty times the speed of sound," Stitch worked out. "How does someone even DO that?" _'That isn't a genetic experiment, anyway,'_ He silently added.

"Well, no one's really sure," Silver admitted. "He says he was just born with it, and some of us think that he can control 'speed' itself…"

Everyone blinked in confusion when Silver mentioned the idea that Sonic could control speed.

 _'W-Wow...'_ Lady Kuroko thought.

 _'Controlling speed?'_ Shadow thought. _'How does THAT work?'_

' _Is it like time magic?'_ Aurora wondered. Stitch's thoughts, however, were rather different than either of theirs.

' _Technically, I suppose that would be called 'velocitakinesis','_ He thought, musing on the word he'd just created. _''Velocitas' is Latin for 'velocity' or 'speed', and '-kinesis' derives from a word meaning 'movement' or 'manipulation'. Therefore, the 'manipulation of velocity.'_

At the same time, however, he was thinking about what they were about to do. He had been this entire time, even while having his glaring match with Slang. They were going to break into a high-security space prison, free someone, and then break out, probably inflicting as much havoc on said prison as possible in the process. It reminded him of when he broke out of the federation ship that was to banish him to a deserted asteroid. That thing was an absolute mess when he was done with it.

' _Ah, good times…'_

He was brought out of both thought processes, however, as Amy walked into the room once more.

"Okay, guys. We're gonna arrive at the Death Egg soon, so let's head to the bridge so we can discuss our plans."

* * *

"…We're moving ahead of schedule! I caught wind that those Resistance pests were on their way to save the blue nuisance, so we'll jettison him out into space before they can!" Eggman declared. He was facing a large, glowing screen, which was displaying the red face of Zavok, the leader of the Zeti from the Lost Hex. Not too long ago, Sonic had foiled his original schemes for the Zeti and seemingly sent Zavok to his demise. However, if Eggman got his way, those days would be but a distant memory, to be washed away with the passing of time.

"Understood," Zavok said. "I will retrieve the blue pest from his cell and escort him to the airlock."

"Good. Now, get going!" Eggman ordered. Zavok nodded, before disappearing from the screen. Eggman sighed. Why wouldn't that annoying Resistance just give up already? It was irritating enough to subjugate the regular citizens as is!

He was broken from his thoughts, however, as a familiar pulsing noise entered the room, followed by a deep, distorted voice.

"Doctor, I have news."

"Huh?" He said, sounding confused as he turned to face the speaker. It was the masked figure who, not too long ago, had beaten Stitch, Angel, and Aurora to a pulp. "Ah, it's you. Returned from your little trip to the city, have you?"

"Yes," The figure said. "It may be within your interest to hear that I encountered three more weaklings from the parallel universe."

"Did you now?" Eggman asked, sounding amused. "I take it they were no match for you, then?"

"Of course. Just like the three before them, they were powerless before my might," The masked one boasted. Eggman smirked, before frowning.

"Yes, of course, but is that all? You destroy opposition every day, you know. This isn't exactly exciting news anymore," The rotund scientist pointed out. The masked figure merely chuckled in amusement and, if one were to listen closely, mild exasperation.

"Of course, doctor. I came not just to boast of my achievements, but also to bring you this," The masked figured pulled out a small device and placed it in Eggman's hand. Eggman looked at it.

"Hm?" He poked and prodded at the small device for a few seconds, before finding that he could flip it open. "Oh, a computer! Let's see here…"

Eggman struck a few keys. The screen lit up with a blue glow.

 _Database ready. Select experiment._

Eggman's moustached lit up with a maniacal grin.

" _Fascinating_ ," He declared. "I will have to examine this database to see if it contains anything of use. Perhaps it contains more information on that interesting energy that we were researching."

"Of course, doctor," The masked figure turned his back and flew off. Eggman turned his attention back to the small alien computer in his hands.

"Now, then… Let's see what we can learn from this," Eggman said, sitting down and beginning to strike a few keys.

… **Well, that can't be good.**

 **This chapter was a bit shorter than the usual, but don't worry, the next one should be a bit longer.**

 **Anyway, guys, I hope you've enjoyed this one, and if you have, be sure to let me know! I'll see you guys in the next one, and until then, peace out!**

 ***Yes, this experiment (He's 598, if you were wondering) has the same name as Shadow the Hedgehog. I'm already thinking of ways to make sure that there's no confusion between them.**


	6. Mission 3- Death Egg: Prison Hall

**Hey, guys! So, I was told that I needed to make things a little more exciting. It IS a little hard to capture the adrenaline rush that running full tilt through a Sonic stage gives you, though, then again, Modern Sonic hasn't made his move yet. Don't worry, though. That'll be next chapter. Yeah, based on that, you can probably tell what this one's gonna be about. There's gonna be a bit of a twist to this one though, so yeah. Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Following Amy, the experiments found themselves in the cockpit, where the other Resistance members were waiting for them. Knuckles looked impatient for something, Charmy was buzzing around, Espio appeared to be meditating, and Vector was doing who-knows-what. Silver walked over to where Knuckles was, and Amy stood by the door.

"So, what's the plan?" Stitch asked.

"We have a spy infiltrating Eggman's ranks," Espio said. "We are waiting to hear back from her."

"So…" Summer stared at him blankly. "You have no plan, then. That's stupid…"

Everyone paused at Summer's words. Then, right as everyone turned to glare at him, they heard a voice belonging to a young woman come through on the radio.

"Knuckles! Can you hear me?"

"Rouge!" Knuckles realized, sighing in relief. "It's about time! How's Sonic doing?"

The voice, identified as Rouge, sighed. "He's been better. They're getting ready to banish him into space."

Everyone froze.

…Wait, _what!?_

"Hold on!" Stitch shouted. "They're getting ready to do that NOW!?"

"You can't be serious!" Silver yelled in agreement.

"T-T-That's b-bad…" Lady Kuroko spoke her agreement in a tiny, nervous voice.

"Eggman's been keeping Sonic alive this whole time," Rouge explained. "He's been waiting to show him his completed empire before banishing him."

"So, keeping him alive, rubbing his victory in his face, and then killing him…" Aurora said, an uncharacteristic hint of anger leaking into her voice.

"That's low, even for Eggman," Knuckles growled.

"Eggman got wind of our rescue plan and is moving forward with his plan ahead of schedule. The clock is ticking, boss," Rouge added.

"But we don't even know where he's being held captive!" Amy complained, pressing her face into her palms.

"Yes, we do!" Rouge shot back. "Eggman's rebuilt the Death Egg. That's where he's keeping Sonic."

Summer raised an eyebrow.

"Death Egg?" He said, incredulously. "Did he run out of names, or does he like himself too much?"

"My money's on both," Shadow (598) shrugged. "Or maybe he just likes eggs?"

"Whatever, I don't really care…"

"What I would like to know is how you were found out," Slang said, narrowing her eyes.

"W-W-We t-tore apart t-t-that ch-chemical plant…" Lady Kuroko hung her head guiltily. "T-That's p-probably…

"The Death Egg?" Vector asked with wide eyes, ignoring them. "Oh, man, that's not good."

Angel spoke up, rubbing her temples in exasperation.

"Okay, let me get this straight. We're invading what I'm assuming is a heavily fortified orbital fortress, looking for someone in an unspecified location in said fortress, and doing it all really, really fast, right?"

"Pretty much," Silver said, shrugging.

"Oh, that sounds fun…" Slang rolled her eyes. "I'm sure this is gonna play out exactly as you intend it to."

"Well, we're not here to have fun," Knuckles said, either ignoring or missing Slang's sarcasm. "We're here on a mission. Now, let's go get Sonic!"

* * *

Several minutes later, the Resistance's shuttle landed aboard what appeared to be the Death Egg's launch bay. Almost as soon as they had left the ship, the group split up. Various members went rushing down the Death Egg's various corridors, looking for any trace of Sonic.

In what direction they had gone was random, with Stitch and Angel choosing one pathway, Aurora and Amy going down another, etc. Some members had opted to go as groups, such as Team Chaotix (Vector, Espio, and Charmy), while others (Silver, Rouge, etc.) had opted to go alone.

Two members, however, hadn't chosen a direction, and were instead still standing idly by near the shuttle. Summer was reading a magazine, while Lady was looking around at her surroundings, nervously fidgeting as she did so.

The Death Egg was huge. That was something that had been obvious from the moment they'd laid eyes on it. Their objective, the one the other members were calling Sonic, was somewhere aboard, but no one knew where.

Lady Kuroko wanted to help track him down. She felt utterly useless in this situation, and she hated it. At the same time, however, being a nervous wreck, she could not bring herself to say anything about it, let alone do anything. And so, she was still at the ship, looking at the one path that no one had taken.

Summer, on the other hand, well, he just didn't give a damn. He was lazy and apathetic about the entire thing, with the only reason he was here being the threat Amy had given him, as well as the idea of having to deal with countless robots by himself. The idea of it just seemed like too much work. That wasn't to say that he particularly enjoyed being here, however. The Death Egg had a distinctly unsettling atmosphere that even he was picking up, and it made it hard for him to concentrate on his magazine.

After a few minutes of this, he sighed, looking up from his magazine and at Lady Kuroko.

"This is annoying…" He said, putting down the magazine. "We'll be stuck here longer if we don't do anything, but it's too much of a bother to do anything."

"W-Well, m-m-maybe we should…" Lady trailed off. She was a hairs breadth away from vocalizing her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Maybe w-w-we s-should help…?" She managed to get out after what felt like an eternity. "W-We're part o-of this, t-too… I-I mean… H-Having him b-b-banished into s-space would be b-bad, r-r-right…?"

Summer sighed, allowing himself to float in mid-air. The only way he'd be willing to get up and move was if this got him off of this floating death trap sooner. And, for once, it seemed that Lady Kuroko wanted to take some kind of initiative. Lazy and apathetic as he was, she was still ' _ohana_ , after all.

"What a pain…" He groaned, before looking at her. "Alright, Lady Kuroko. I guess it's playtime."

"P-Playtime…?" Lady asked nervously, tilting her head. She then began to chuckle darkly. A dark misty aura began to emanate from her, as the lights in the surrounding area began to dim. Her body began to contort in unnatural ways; her limbs began to pop out of place, her head hung loose, as if she'd broken her neck. She hunched forward, landing on all fours. "I like that. I like playtime."

In a surge of dark energy, her body melted into the shadows, before darting off at high speed down a path no one else had taken. Summer yawned, before lazily floating after her.

Naturally, there were a series of robots waiting for them. Lady raised her head out of the shadows. She stared blankly at them.

"I shall devour you…" She said, her voice an emotionless, raspy whisper, before she lunged. The robots attempted to fire at her, with little success as rather than hit her, their shots harmlessly phased through her. Lady charged into one of the robots, phasing into it as she did so. The Egg Pawn contorted wildly for a few seconds before exploding. At blinding speed, Lady charged into the next one, followed by the rest of the group, leaving behind only scrap metal.

Meanwhile, Summer lazily floated behind her, casting a disinterested glance at the destruction the black experiment left in her wake.

Lady leapt back into the shadows, eventually coming to a steep downwards incline. As she raced down it, Knuckles came through on the comm link.

"Listen up, you two!" He said. "Our other forces are busy dealing with enemies. It looks like you two took the best route. It's up to you to save Sonic now. Find him!"

"Great," Summer sighed. "Looks like it's on us, then…"

Lady Kuroko paid neither of them any mind, instead charging down the path as a black shadow. She took a sharp turn that lead her to a group of dash panels, which then launched her into the air and onto another platform.

As Lady recovered from the momentary surprise of being launched into the air, Summer noticed the golden rings hovering along their path. He decided to pay them no mind, instead continuing to lazily float after his sister.

Having recovered, Lady Kuroko continued forward, emerging from the shadows to move over a pitfall. Seeing a horde of badniks waiting for her, she began to laugh maniacally, before emitting a blood-curdling scream. Her jaw distended and the robots were forcibly pulled towards her. She phased into the frontmost one, causing it to detonate, taking out its comrades in the process.

"Well… Someone's enthusiastic…" Amy sounded more than a little creeped out.

"Apologies…" Aurora said. "She just gets… a little excited, sometimes…"

"Excited!?" Charmy almost yelled. "Do you HEAR that laughter!? She sounds like some kinda ax psycho!"

"Well, glad she's on our side, then," Silver responded, a tone of uncertainty in his voice. "She IS on our side, right?"

" _Ih_ ," Stitch said. "She's ' _ohana_ after all."

Emerging once more, she was sent down the next incline by the force of the explosion, and after another sharp turn, was launched off of another, single dash panel directly in the center of the pathway. This one launched her onto a platform covered in Rings. Lady attempted to ignore them, only for them to suddenly go flying towards her before disappearing. She felt a surge of energy with each Ring she touched.

Now cackling, she charged forwards, easily clearing the next pitfall that separated the platform she had been on and the rest of the path.

Summer raised an eyebrow. That was unusual.

"The hell are these things?" He asked.

"Huh? What?" Knuckles sounded confused. "Oh, you mean the Rings?"

"I've been meaning to ask that myself, actually," Stitch agreed. "What ARE they, exactly?"

"Well, no one really knows where they come from," Amy admitted. "But they DO contain something we call 'Ring Energy'. Ring Energy can be used to charge a person's powers, and it can also protect you from harm, so collecting them isn't a bad idea."

"Really?" Shadow (598) asked, sounding surprised.

"They protect against damage…" Aurora sounded thoughtful.

"You guys aren't from here, are you?" Vector asked. "I mean, they're all over the planet. It's kinda hard to miss!"

"We'll explain later," Angel said. Stitch said nothing, but one could hear the sound of someone charging headfirst into a large number of Rings over the comm link.

Ignoring the conversation, Lady went charging into yet another dash panel, she was sent clear through the air at incredible speed, landing on a pathway with six Buzz Bombers waiting for her.

"You…" She croaked, before leaping with surprising speed into the air, leaping into the first one. The robot spastically flailed around, firing shots in all directions, striking the other Buzz Bombers. Summer, who had just floated up from one of the lower routes, noticed a shot coming towards him. He held out his paw, and the energy shot stopped dead in its tracks.

"Aim at the robots, not me," He yawned.

The original Buzz Bomber exploded, with a black shadow leaping from it back onto the path.

Lady Kuroko, hunched over, gave him with an empty stare. Summer sighed, pointing forward at the path ahead.

With a wild screech (Which probably made everyone on the comm link flinch) Lady Kuroko went charging forward, down a winding path that took her to a lower level. Summer, being too lazy to bother with such things, instead opted to float down the gap in front of the corkscrewing path.

"The prisoners are being held in a kind of internment facility," Rouge noted. "Sonic is probably there, too. Security is tight, so stay in your toes."

"Great, more work…" Summer snapped, before sighing. "Whatevs… Let's just get this over with…"

Lady, again ignoring him, darted forward with reckless abandon, charging over a pitfall, and rapidly possessing, then destroying, another small group of Egg Pawns in her path. Behind the Egg Pawns, there was a large wall, which for most people would have been insurmountable.

The Demon family was not 'most people'.

Fading back into her shadow, Lady effortlessly flew up the side of the wall, while Summer slowly floated up after her.

"Nothing in this room, either," Silver reported.

"Man!" Vector shouted. "We're still trying to fight our way out! They've got us pinned down!"

"There's a lot of robots down this way!" Angel yelled, a note of exertion in her voice.

"Whatever's down here, they REALLY don't want us to find it!" Stitch observed.

Lady resumed her rampage, charging forward on the path and up another wall, decidedly ignoring the elevator that activated below her.

"Ugh… Wouldn't it have been easier to take the elevator?" Summer asked, tiredly.

Lady didn't respond, choosing instead to launch herself at a nearby group of Buzz Bombers, with predictable results. As she darted up another wall, Summer took a glance at the surrounding area. Countless empty cells littered the walls of the chamber they were in. He raised an eyebrow.

"Looks like this place was used up until recently," Vector noted, voicing his thoughts.

"So many of these cells… How many people has he kept locked up…!?" Aurora asked, once again sounding uncharacteristically angry, even if only slightly. It seemed this 'Eggman' had a knack for inspiring the worst in people.

"I cannot say," Espio said. "Though I can only assume the numbers to be many."

"Hold on, the cells are empty?" Angel asked. "If they were used until recently, then either the prisoners were moved, or…"

She trailed off, the silent implication dawning on everyone listening. After a few seconds, Silver finally broke the silence.

"That's one more thing Eggman will answer for…!" He declared, sounding like he was speaking through gritted teeth.

The next wall led directly into the ceiling, meaning there was no choice but to take the elevator. Lady emerged next to Summer, holding her head at an odd angle, her eyes wide, and with her fingers in her mouth. For the moment, she seemed semi-stable. That is until the elevator very quickly took the two experiments down, through a large collection of Rings, to a slightly lower level.

Giggling madly, Lady Kuroko rushed forward, once more fuelled by Ring Energy, darting once again into a nearby Badnik horde of both Buzz Bombers and Egg Pawns, quickly tearing through them via possession.

As she went to turn a corner, sirens began blaring as a red light began to flicker on and off, illuminating the halls with an eerie red light.

"Uh-oh. They're on high-alert now," Rouge said.

"I sense Sonic's presence… He's close!" Espio declared. Lady sped up as a response, blasting down the halls at much greater speed than before. A new Badnik, an Aero-Chaser, flew directly in front of her, aiming a pair of laser blasters at her.

"You…" Lady gave it a demented stare. The robot fired on her, only for the attack to phase right through her.

With a violent screech, Lady leapt up and into the Aero-Chaser, causing it to contort and leading it to crash into the ground. Lady emerged from the wreckage unharmed, before continuing to blast down the halls, with Summer slowly following behind her.

* * *

As Lady Kuroko tore through the internment facility, Stitch and Angel were blasting down another series of halls. They had gone a very different route than anyone else had, leading deeper into the Death Egg than any other. After a few quiet minutes of running, Angel looked around and came screeching to a halt.

"Hey, Stitchie?"

"Huh?" Stitch asked, noticing that she had stopped before coming to a halt himself. "What's the matter?"

"Where are we, exactly? I think we got a little too far from the rest of the group," Angel responded. Stitch looked around for a moment, before shrugging and began walking down the hall. "H-Hey, where do you think you're going!?"

"I dunno where we're at," Stitch casually admitted. "But I memorized the path that we took, so finding our way back shouldn't be too hard."

"So why aren't we going back?" Angel gave him her best angry expression, which came off as poutier looking than anything else. Stitch began laughing a little. "Why are you laughing? I'm trying to be angry here."

"Well, first off, I'm kind of an engineering nut, so I just HAVE to get a look at what makes this place tick," Stitch admitted, before grinning. "Second thing, you're adorable when you're angry."

Feeling her face heat up, Angel walked up to him and playfully hit him in the shoulder.

"Okay, stop it. I'm seriously trying to be mad at you. We've got a rescue mission to get back to, and you're trying to be a science geek," She said, trying (and failing) to fight the small smile she was making.

Stitch just grinned in response before back turning around and continuing on his way.

"Knuckles said that Kuro and Summer were on the best route, so they've probably found him or are about to by now. Anyway, 'Death Egg', huh? Sounds to me like he was ripping off an old sci-fi movie," He said, that grin never once leaving his face. Angel responded before she could stop herself.

"Honestly, if he was trying to sound threatening, he probably should have started with something other than 'Death'. That's way too clichéd nowadays."

"Tell me about it. There's a whole lot of synonyms he could have used for 'death'. Heck, he could've gone a different route altogether. You know, 'Egg Station', or 'Orbital Egg', or something, you know?" Stitch said, noticing that the hallway seemed to lead into a larger chamber. He magnified his vision to see what was ahead. "…Woah."

"Huh? What is it?" Angel asked, now looking worried. "Is it something dangerous?"

"Doesn't look like it…" Stitch's vision went back to normal. "But I think it might be important. Let's go!"

He took off before Angel could say anything. The pink experiment sighed in light annoyance before running after him.

After about a minute or two of running, Stitch stopped at the end of the hall. Angel, having expected him to continue running, wound up running into his back, sending her backwards onto the floor.

"Oooow…" She groaned, rubbing her head. "Hey! Warn me before… you…"

She trailed off as she got back up and got an eyeful of what Stitch was seeing.

A massive chamber, easily as large as several city blocks greeted them. Although the sheer size of the chamber was surprising, to say the least, the most interesting thing in front of them was the massive sphere at the center of the room. Several large metallic rings circled it, and it had a pattern of purple lights illuminating its surface. If Angel had to guess, it was easily as large as a _Kaiju_ from the Japanese movies that she and the others had seen before.

The thing was also producing a constant humming noise that reverberated around the room, instantly cluing anyone around them what it was. Still, Angel, in a state of shock, had to ask.

"Stitchie, what is that?"

Stitch responded almost absentmindedly. "If I had to guess, we're at the center of the Death Egg. That's its core and power generator."

He began walking towards it, almost mesmerized as he stared at it intently.

"If we destroy it…" He began. "We'd probably bring this station out of commission. Just like that, Eggman would lose a major weapon."

His antennae and quills had extended as he spoke. Angel understood what this meant and quickly ran up to him, grabbing his arm. Stitch quickly snapped out of his trance and turned to her.

"Later, okay?" She said, adding a somewhat forceful tone to her voice. "I don't think it'd benefit us right now to destroy it with all of us on it, right?"

Stitch blinked, before sighing in resignation.

"Okay, okay…" He said, his ears drooping. "Can I at least take a quick look at it, so we can destroy it later?"

Angel shrugged. "Just make it quick, please. We're a ways away from where we're supposed to be, so we should probably get back as soon as possi-"

" _Gaba!?_ " Stitch shouted suddenly. He had begun scouring the base of the core almost the moment Angel had opened her mouth, and he saw something that gave him pause.

"Huh? What is it?" Angel asked, wondering he was surprised about.

"You might wanna get a look at this…" Stitch said, quietly. Puzzled, Angel walked over to where he was, and stopped cold when she saw what he was staring at.

A violet gemstone was sticking out of the core.

A violet gemstone, with a European diamond cut.

It was _identical_ to the stones they had seen before this fiasco began. The stone was embedded in what appeared to be a slot specially made to house it. An ethereal glow was emanating from it, dying its surroundings with a faint violet hue.

"T-That's one of the…" Angel stammered slightly. Stitch nodded.

"That's one of the stones we saw earlier, when we got dumped here," He said. Both of them stared at the stone for a few minutes, not sure what to do or say.

That came to an end when Knuckles came through on the comm link.

"Hey, rookies. Where are you guys? We lost track of you a little while ago."

A tick mark appeared on Stitch's forehead.

"For the love of-! WE'RE NOT ROOKIES!" He roared back. Angel covered her ears from the outburst and had the sneaking suspicion that everyone else did as well. As she uncovered her ears, she swore she saw the stone glow slightly brighter.

"…Touchy, much?" Shadow eventually spoke up, groaning. This was followed by Amy's voice, which sounded slightly shaken.

"Um… Anyway, could you give us some intel on your position?"

"We're in what we think is the Death Egg's core," Angel said, noticing that Stitch was still fuming slightly. She began rubbing his shoulder to calm him down.

"Wait, really!?" Vector asked, sounding dumbfounded. "That means you could blow the thing!"

"Stitch said that as well," Angel admitted. "But let's be real here: blowing it up, with all of us on it? That's NOT a good idea."

"She's got a point, you guys," Amy said. Finally calm enough to think rationally, Stitch finally spoke up.

"Blowing it up's out of the question, for now anyway, but I think we can disrupt its energy supply a little bit; force it to run at less than maximum power," He eyed the violet gemstone. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was thinking. He placed his paw on the gem's surface, mischief glimmering in his eyes.

"Oh? And how will you do that?" Espio asked, sounding intrigued.

"Like _THIS!_ " Stitch tore the gemstone out of place.

The results were immediate: the Death Egg shook violently as the lights flickered, plunging everyone into darkness momentarily before coming back online, albeit slightly dimmer than before. Angel was a little shaken. Stitch seemed pleased with himself, however, grinning slightly at his spoils.

"Woah!" Aurora said, sounding like she'd been knocked off-balance. "What did you just do?"

"Great, little brother. Could have warned us before you did that," Summer sighed, once more sounding lightly annoyed. No word from Lady Kuroko, who was probably still on a rampage.

"Just tore this weird stone out of place," Stitch said, still eying the purple stone in his hands. Now that he was holding it, he felt it pulling at him slightly, as if it were trying to lead him somewhere. It also made a very faint noise, akin to a constant humming noise. It would be too quiet for human ears to detect, but was unable to escape his.

"Wait, a weird stone?" Knuckles suddenly asked. "Is it green, blue, light blue, red, purple, white, or yellow?"

Stitch and Angel both raised an eyebrow at that.

"It's purple. Why?" Angel asked.

"That must be a Chaos Emerald!" Charmy shouted. Stitch and Angel both grit their teeth. That bee, although he meant well, had a really grating voice. Then, it hit them what he'd said.

"Wait, Chaos Emerald?" Angel asked.

"Aren't emeralds supposed to be green?" Stitch asked.

"Okay, look, we really don't have time for this, so just grab that emerald and get moving," Knuckles said, sounding irritated.

Stitch and Angel looked at each other and shrugged, before Stitch extended one of his extra arms, grabbed the emerald with it, and then retracted it, effectively tucking the gem away. Angel looked at him expectantly, glancing at his antennae and quills. He quickly retracted those as well.

"You said you remembered the way, right?" Angel asked him. Stitch simply gave her a confident grin.

"Of course I do!" He said, turning around and taking off in the direction where they came from, with Angel in hot pursuit.

* * *

 **...Lady Kuroko is nuts. I admit it, I haven't really written creepy characters like her ever, so this was a bit of a learning experience for me. Still, I think she fits the Prison Hall level pretty well, especially with the level's music talking about having intense anxiety.**

 **And Stitch has a Chaos Emerald! Oh, if only he knew how to use it. Then he'd REALLY make it live up to its name, haha.**

 **Before I go, I think you guys know what's coming next. R &R, and I'll see you guys next time!**


	7. Escape- Boss 2: vs Zavok and Egg Gate

**Alright! Next chapter! I don't think I need to say too much. After all, it's Sonic we're talking about here. For now, I'll just say to enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"This is the end, Sonic."

The aforementioned blue hedgehog turned to his captor. Zavok was staring at him from outside his cell, an annoyingly arrogant look plastered on his face. As per usual, however, Sonic had nothing but sarcasm for him. The prison shook violently, something that had been happening on and off for the past few minutes.

"Oh, hey. Looks like the party's started!" He grinned sardonically. Seeing a lack of any real reaction, he decided to continue.

"You gonna let me join in? No? Of course not. You hate fun," The blue-furred hedgehog lowered his eyelids, only for them to widen slightly when the prison shook again, even more violently this time. The lights flickered for a second, before coming back on, slightly dimmer than before. The blue cuffs of energy binding Sonic's hands and feet suddenly disappeared, much to his and Zavok's confusion.

"The end, huh?" Sonic grinned, hopping up off the bench he had been sitting on. He began to walk towards the cell door, which had just slid open as soon as the power came back on. "Let's see you try something now that I'm free."

"Foolish hedgehog," Zavok sneered. He clenched his large red fist. "Getting out of your chains does not make you free. Now, _come and face the inevitable._ "

Sonic smirked in response before suddenly vanishing from sight. Zavok's eyes widened in alarm as Sonic simply disappeared from his sight. That was until he heard the annoying hedgehog's voice from behind him.

"The only thing 'inevitable' here is my foot kicking your butt!"

Zavok growled before turning around and launching a shoulder tackle at Sonic. The Blue Blur effortlessly jumped out of the way, mockingly grinning at the Zeti as he did so. Zavok launched himself off of the platform the cell was located and fell just short of a small hexagonal platform directly in the chamber. Smirking, Sonic jumped after him, landing on the platform.

A loud, insect-like buzzing noise filled the chamber as Zavok rose from the pit below, standing atop a large beelike mech that bore a striking resemblance to a Buzz Bomber (1).

The mechanical insect rose above the platform as Zavok beat his fists together, before roaring loudly.

"I can't wait to see how long you last against this," The Zeti remarked as Sonic quickly nabbed eighteen Rings from around the platform. A small group of Buzz Bombers materialized right before Sonic. He smirked.

"Come out and fight me yourself, and I'll mop you up real quick!" Zavok scowled at Sonic's boast.

"Impudent runt! I'm going to savor watching you suffer," He growled, holding out his hand. The Buzz Bombers began to home in on Sonic's position. The blue hedgehog responding by jumping into the air, curling into a ball as he did so. Homing in on the Buzz Bombers, he quickly slammed into one of them, before continuing on to the next, moving so quickly that it looked as if he'd destroyed them all at once.

The mech Zavok was riding on lowered slightly, aiming its legs at Sonic as it did so. Sonic recognized what this meant and flipped out of the way of a group of six lasers that began to follow him around the platform. As he jogged ahead of the lasers, he noticed that Zavok himself wasn't moving.

Wanting to take advantage of this, Sonic leapt into the air, pirouetting in mid-air as to avoid the lasers as he did so, before curling into a ball and rocketing towards him. The Zeti recognized the attack, and quickly put up his arm to block, doing so successfully. Only for Sonic, who had bounced off of his arm, to suddenly launch forward again, this time landing a blow directly on Zavok's chest.

Zavok and the mech were both sent reeling from the sudden strike as Sonic landed back on the platform. Zavok glared at Sonic, who merely smirked.

"What's wrong, big guy?" He asked mockingly. "Can't keep up?"

"You're going to regret making a fool of me!" Zavok scowled. Sonic kept smirking in response.

Frustrated, Zavok summoned a large ring on Buzz Bombers, before ordering them to close in on the blue pest. Sonic, in response, leapt into the air, allowing them to harmlessly crash into the spot he had just been in. Sonic landed on the pile of broken robots and gave Zavok a questioning look.

"That it?"

In response, Zavok's mech lifted higher into the air, until it was hovering about 30 feet above the platform. Sonic recognized what it was about to do and somersaulted out of the way as it came crashing down where he had been a mere second before. The impact created a shockwave that threw Sonic into the air, slightly surprising him.

Quickly recovering, Sonic curled into a ball again and blasted towards Zavok, who in turn, blocked the Homing Attack with his arm. Sonic curled again, only to be met with the same result. The third time, Sonic curled into a ball and began spinning as if to prepare a Homing Attack, which lead to Zavok raising his arm again.

He was thusly caught off-guard when instead of a Homing Attack, he was greeted by a Sonic Storm (2). The blue shockwave of energy slammed into him with enough force to throw him off-balance, leaving him wide open, long enough for Sonic to somersault above him and come down on top of him with a Sonic Eagle (3) that sent the Zeti reeling.

"You're not making this easy, are you?" Zavok growled as he recovered his balance, before smirking sadistically. "No matter. Crushing you will be all the more satisfying!"

"Funny that you say that when you haven't even hit me once!" Sonic shot back grinning as he landed. Zavok scowled, before launching the mech, stinger first at Sonic. The hedgehog dodged easily, before launching a Sonic Wave (4) as it as it passed by. Zavok managed to block the attack before sending another wave of Buzz Bombers at him.

Sonic didn't even bother with these ones, instead standing in such a way that when Zavok attempted to run him through again, he instead hit the badniks as Sonic jumped out of the way, before attempting to bounce on his head.

Zavok managed to smack him away, before raising the mech above the platform once more. Sonic smirked as Zavok attempted to bring it down on top of him. Just as the mech began to fall, Sonic suddenly jumped high into the air, curled into a ball, and slammed into Zavok. Zavok threw up both arms to defend himself. The sheer force, however, of the attack quickly overtook Zavok's defence, and left him dazed.

Sonic promptly homed in and struck Zavok once more, this time opting to land on the mech afterwards. When Zavok saw him, after shaking his head to clear the stars in his vision, he attempted to throw a punch at Sonic. Sonic quickly jumped into the air, before curling up and striking him in the chest yet again. This time, Sonic didn't let Zavok recover.

Just as Zavok was trying to recover his bearings, he was punched in the face by a gloved fist. Another strike, followed by a swift spinning kick followed. One strike, two strikes, three, four, five, six strikes. Sonic struck Zavok in the face six times in rapid succession. Then Sonic leapt up, curled into a ball, and dashed into Zavok's chest, sending him hurtling off the mech.

"No!" He shouted in pain and disbelief. "How could I lose to the likes of you _again!?_ "

Sonic made a three-point landing on the robot and smirked down at his fallen opponent.

"That was a blast. Bring some chili dogs next time," He called out mockingly.

The mech, as no one was piloting it anymore, began to fall out of the air. Sonic leapt off of it, landing directly in front of Zavok as he did so. The Zeti was left on his hands and knees, panting to recover his breath, before finally collapsing into unconsciousness with a mighty thud.

For a few still moments, nothing happened.

Then, Zavok's body began to flicker with red static. A distorted garbling noise could be heard as Zavok began to fade away into nothing. Sonic raised his eyebrow in surprise.

"It's that sound again…?" He looked around in confusion. What could've made that noise? He was quickly snapped out of his thoughts, however, when the ground began to shake even more violently than before. So violently, in fact, that small pieces of debris began to shake loose from the ceiling. Sonic quickly came to the conclusion that the prison itself may be becoming unstable, which meant…

"Woah! It's not time for thinking, it's time for running!"

Dashing forward, Sonic leapt off of the platform and landed on what appeared to be the only path leading away from the prison.

* * *

Sonic dashed through a long passage at high speed as the sounds of alarms blaring reverberated throughout the halls. Looking up, he saw that the ceiling was beginning to slowly descend, threatening to crush him. Amused and undeterred, he began to pick up the pace, eventually coming to a conveniently placed spring.

Bouncing off of it, he came across another platform with the ceiling once again coming down to crush him into a hedgehog pancake.

"Guess they found out I escaped. Oh, well," He shrugged nonchalantly as he ran. "Time to kiss this yawnfest good-bye!"

He clenched his fists. His body became enveloped in a shimmering blue aura and he Boosted down the hall like a giant blue bullet. He snatched up ten Rings quickly before coming to a small pitfall. Without stopping, he leapt over it, grabbing some twenty-five Rings as he did so before leaping over another pit, which brought him out from under the collapsing ceiling and into a long, narrow hall.

Running through a series of dash panels, Sonic didn't even blink as dozens of armored doors quickly began to close behind him in a desperate attempt to contain him with loud metallic thuds. Reaching a spring, he leaped out of the hallway and onto a large rail floating outside. He casually glanced around, and discovered himself being treated by a breathtaking view of the Earth below.

"Woah, we're off planet! Guess anyone who crosses Eggman gets a one-way trip to space," He realized as he grinded down the rail, leaving a shower of sparks. Noticing a group of Buzz Bombers at the end of the rail, along with a branching path of rails, three to be exact, he leapt up and dashed towards the nearest one using his Homing Attack. As he did so, he noticed what appeared to be a swarm of Aero Chasers flying past.

Shrugging it off, he chained one attack after another and found himself taking the rightmost path, bringing him to another rail. He clenched his fists again and was once more enveloped by blue energy as he Boosted through, kicking up a massive cloud of sparks as he did so.

"No way I'm sticking around here! There's nothin' to run on!" He decided as he did so, jumping over a few inconveniently placed spikes on the rail.

The rail ended with a spring that bounced him onto a platform that appeared to be built into an asteroid. Seeing a few Egg Pawns, Sonic once again chained together a few Homing Attacks, destroying the robots and allowing him to quickly ascend a few platforms with utmost ease. The platform in front of him was moving up and down, making it an elevator of sorts. Barely paying it any mind, Sonic leapt up onto it and up the next few platforms.

On the edge of the highest platform was a set of springs that sent him flying to another rail, this one with a large loop midway through. Sonic Boosted once more, allowing him to blast through it quickly, grabbing a few Rings along the way.

Having made his way inside the facility situated on the asteroid proper, Sonic charged inside. Seeing a group of Egg Pawns waiting for him, he Boosted again, sending each robot flying into the opposite wall as soon as he made contact with them. He quickly came across a segmented section of the floor that, the instant he set foot on it, sprang upwards into a makeshift stairway, ending with a spring on upper segment.

Leaping into the air using the spring, Sonic nabbed a Red Star Ring before shifting his position, allowing him to land on a floating platform. Jumping up two more platforms, Sonic was able to make his way to a passageway above him, where the ceiling began to come down on top of him once more.

Grinning, he Boosted forward once more, blasting down the hall and through a horde of Badniks with record speed. Several wall-mounted turrets emerged and began to fire volleys of shots at him. Without stopping, Sonic easily weaved in and out of the shots before running straight through a line of Rings and into a conveniently placed spring that sent him up onto another platform.

Charging into the next room, he ran through a Star Gate before leaping onto a platform above him.

"I don't do well in tight spaces," He mused, jumping onto another rising staircase and another spring. He then noticed another rising platform and Air Boosted into it, evading gunfire from another turret and landed on the spring, sending him into the air using the sudden upwards momentum and the spring. "I'll pay back Eggman for putting me in this jam later!"

That was for the future, however. For now, he had to focus on getting back to Earth.

The spring had launched him onto a platform with a dash panel on it. Blasting forward, he came across another spring. He was subsequently launched out of the facility, to another spring situated on a small asteroid, that sent him crashing head-first through several smaller asteroids, onto another spring, that then launched him onto a trio of rails.

Then, like clockwork, that trio of Aero Chasers he had noticed earlier came back, flying just ahead of him above each rail. The one closest to him, the central one, fired. Sonic flipped to the right. The rightmost Aero Chaser fired. Sonic flipped again to the left.

As soon as the central robot began firing, Sonic flipped onto the leftmost rail and sent a Sonic Storm at it, knocking it off balance. He then jumped into the air and used his Homing Attack. Using his newfound height, he then jumped over and delivered a Sonic Eagle to the central one, sending it crashing into the rail. The third Aero Chaser quickly retreated, leaving Sonic to land on the leftmost rail again.

As he dispatched the robots, he noticed a giant sphere of metal, one bearing the likeness (and moustache) of a familiar egg-shaped scientist.

"So they had me locked up on the Death Egg," He realized. "This big ball of scrap just won't stay destroyed!" He was propelled forward by a dash panel situated on the rail that sent him careening down a series of loops that then lead to another trio of rails with more Aero Chasers.

"I'll be outta here in no time, though. Just wait and see, Eggman!" The Aero-Chaser in front of him fired off a laser blast that Sonic quickly flipped out of the way of. Deciding to not give it a chance to do that again, Sonic homed in on it and slammed into it in mid-air. He then leapt onto the leftmost Aero-Chaser and made a mocking gesture to the rightmost one. Seeing him, it fired a blast at him, only to strike its own comrade. Sonic took the chance to leap onto the last one and tear through its jetpack, sending it hurtling to parts unknown.

Satisfied, Sonic landed on the rightmost rail, grabbing several more Rings and another Red Star Ring. This rail brought him to another spring that sent him flying through several dash rings. After plowing through several more asteroids, he reached another Star Post.

The ceiling began to lower again, prompting him to Boost forward through the upwards-sloping hall. Noticing a dash ring below him, Sonic allowed himself to fall into it, allowing him to land on the platform below.

Noticing another rising staircase, Sonic leapt over it and onto the spring, sending him into the air. Before he began falling, he noticed a series of what looked like metal crates. He positioned himself over them and Stomped on them, enveloping himself in blue energy as he did so.

Plowing through them, he landed on a platform with a turret on the wall opposite to him. Smirking, Sonic accelerated, getting to the wall before the turret could fire. Noticing several crates below him, he leapt up a little before Stomping through them. As he did, he began to ponder.

"So, what's my move? It's not like I can swim out into space…" He landed on another rising spring. He then saw a Buzz Bomber about to fire on him. He quickly homed in on it, smashing it into pieces. Using the momentum the explosion gave him, he cleared a short wall and landed on a group of downwards facing dash rings. As he went down the small hole, it hit him.

"I know! I'll just grab a shuttle! The one I came in on must be around here somewhere..."

He Boosted down another hallway with yet another lowering ceiling. As he did so, he grinned. "I could do with a little space cruise on my way home."

He Stomped down another line of crates. Boosting as he landed, he went through a Star Post and a long line of Rings. After being launched off of yet another spring (he'd stopped counting how many), he landed on a lone rail that lead towards the Death Egg.

As he grinded towards the massive space station, he noticed a group of what looked like fighter drones flying besides him. Shrugging, Sonic leapt up off the rail and onto the nearest one.

With incredible speed, the fighter drones flew up to the Death Egg. As they travelled above its surface, Sonic saw a series of energy blasts being fired in his direction. As the drones swerved to avoid the shots, one of the was hit and exploded in a large fireball.

"Man, they're packin' a lot of firepower," He whistled. "Still, doesn't matter if they can't land their shots! Here goes nothin'!"

When he saw a blast heading straight towards him, he leapt onto the next drone. Several more exploded behind him as he jumped. Seeing another blast headed his way, he leapt onto the next drone, just before the one he was on previously exploded.

As he landed, several more turrets revealed themselves and fired a sudden burst of shots. With no more drones to land on, Sonic leapt up off of the doomed drone and into a large shaft directly below him.

Momentarily surprised, he nonetheless righted himself and dove into the shaft. After a few seconds of freefall, he finally landed. Looking around for a moment, he grinned to find that he was in the shuttle bay. Exactly where he wanted to be. Seeing something ahead, he Boosted forward.

* * *

"Well, THIS sucks," Stitch grunted, holding up his Wispon. He and Angel were surrounded on all sides by a veritable horde of Badniks.

"It sucks even harder that we're in orbit," Angel added, holding up her hammer. "My powers are basically useless here."

"Still, I think we can handle it, right?" Stitch asked, lowering into a fighting stance. Angel did the same.

"Only if reinforcements don't show up," She responded. Stitch was about to chastise her for tempting fate when he heard something land at the far end of the shuttle bay. Thinking it was more robots, he silently prepared to groan.

…Which is why he was pleasantly surprised, along with Angel, when a blue blur shot in from out of nowhere, tearing through the Badniks at unprecedented speed. He blinked. Whatever had just happened was too fast for even his supercomputer brain to process.

"What the-?" Angel started to ask, only for the blue blur to land right in front of them, uncurling to reveal a blue hedgehog. The hedgehog grinned smugly, looking over his handiwork before turning to them.

"Easy there. Everything's cool," Sonic said, holding out a gloved hand. Sonic quickly made note of their odd appearance, though he wrote it off. What interested him more was what they were doing here, on the Death Egg.

"Are you here to rescue me?" He asked. Both Angel and Stitch looked at him for a few seconds.

"If your name's 'Sonic', then yeah," Angel said. Sonic sighed in relief.

"Thanks," He grinned. "Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. It's been a while since I've seen a friendly face."

Stitch went to answer, only for Knuckles to speak up over the comm link.

"Hey, rookies. You still in one piece?" He asked.

Angel groaned and prepared for the explosion that Stitch would inevitably unleash upon the red echidna, only for Sonic to speak up before he got the chance.

"Oh, sure," He grinned, letting his voice drip with sarcasm. "Don't even bother to ask how _I_ am."

His grin vaporized in an instant when he heard a certain fangirl shouting over the radio.

"SONIC! I'm so glad!"

"Amy!?" He groaned, facepalming. The instant Amy shouted his name, the other Resistance members stopped dead in their tracks.

"We've got him?" Shadow (598) asked.

"Great. We can get off this dump…" Summer yawned.

After a moment, Sonic looked up at them quizzically. "Hey, there a way outta here?"

Stitch pointed over to the ship at the end of the walkway.

" _Ih._ Right over there," He said.

"Hold on, Amy," Knuckles tried to calm Amy down. "We're all happy he's alive, but he won't be for long if he doesn't get off that egg in a hurry."

Sonic grinned in response.

"Your concern is touching, Knuckles," He sarcastically noted, before jogging towards the shuttle. Angel and Stitch blinked. His jogging speed was easily as fast as a full-blown sprint from either of them. Realizing that he was leaving them behind, they took off after him, running down the path.

Sonic leapt from the walkway and onto the ramp that lead into the shuttle, leading Stitch to grab Angel and do the same, using his grappling hook to latch onto the ship and swing towards the hatch.

After a moment, the rest of the Resistance followed suit, running into the shuttle bay at full speed and clambering up the ramp. As the last member (Vector) did so, the ramp retracted into the ship, which began to off the ground. The bay doors opened and the shuttle blasted off at incredible speed.

* * *

"Well, THAT sucked…" Zack groaned. At present, he had his arm on Clover's shoulders, and vice versa, as the two were using each other as support.

"Jumba was telling 623 that was terrible idea," Jumba remarked. He had gotten off easier than the two experiments, as the masked figure hadn't registered him as anything resembling a threat, though he was still walking with a noticeable limp.

"Least we tried, right?" Clover asked. Zack and Jumba just gave her odd looks in return.

"If by 'try', you are meaning, 'could not see masked monster moving, getting beaten up, and having Jumba's database stolen,' then 623 did 'try'," Jumba responded. Zack sighed.

"Yeah, let's be honest, Clo. That wasn't the best idea you've had, ever," He said. Clover managed a slightly weak, but still cheeky, grin.

"Ah, you guys are no fun!" She said teasingly. Zack managed a smile. Somehow, Clover always managed to lighten the mood.

…That is until what Jumba said registered in Zack's mind. His eyes went wider than dinner plates as he whipped his head towards Jumba.

"Wait, he stole the experiment database!?" He half-shouted in alarm. That now seemed to click with Clover, who gave Jumba an expectant look. Jumba nodded.

"Yes. Masked monster stole database from Jumba's pocket. Lucky for us, a good evil genius is always carrying around spares, no?" He managed to chuckle a little, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a second computer. "No major loss."

"That's NOT what I'm worried about!" Zack retorted. "That masked _freak_ just got his mitts on the database! Y'know, the thing that has everything from our strengths and our weaknesses on it!?"

Before Jumba could respond, Clover stuck her tongue out.

"Bah! I'm sure we can handle it!" She grinned. Zack sweatdropped. "What could that guy do with it anyway? It's not like he can just conjure our weaknesses out of thin air, right?"

"…Right," Zack said after a moment.

' _Assuming that isn't EXACTLY what his power is…_ ' He silently added. He then turned to Jumba.

"Look, either way, I think we should worry about the computer later. We've got other stuff to deal with right now." Jumba gave him a quizzical look.

"Like…?" He started. Zack sighed again. Being the sane one was grating sometimes, even if it gave him plenty of things to joke and snark about.

"…Like getting ourselves some bandages and some cover. You see how we're walkin' right now?" He pointed out. "Clo and I can't walk without help, and you've got a bit of a limp yourself."

Jumba shrugged in response.

"Eh, 623 and 625 are 600-series experiments. Will be fully healed by tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's tomorrow, not today," Zack remarked. "Unless, you know, you wanna fight the giant robots over there with us barely being able to stand."

"Hm…" Jumba thought for a moment. "625 is raising a good point. What cover are you having in mind?"

"Well..." Zack started, looking thoughtful. "I think I saw someplace when we first wound up in this dump…"

* * *

 **He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaack! And he's with the Resistance! Eggman, say your prayers, 'cuz anything you try is now doomed to fail!**

… **Or is he? Okay, yeah, if you've played the game, you already know the answer to that, but, yeah. Hopefully, the addition of some new places and missions should keep readers on their toes.**

 **Honestly, this was fun to write. For those not in the know, all of the moves he used (which are listed below along with another little bit of trivia) originated from Sonic Battle. Figured it'd be more interesting to use some of his other techniques besides the Spin Attack, Sonic Boost, and Homing Attack.**

 **1) Fun fact, this thing happens to be called the "Death Queen" by the official soundtrack.**

 **2) A shockwave Sonic produces by spinning in place while in mid-air.**

 **3) A mid-air axe-kick performed right after a somersault.**

 **4) Ground-based version of the Sonic Storm.**


	8. Interlude - A Moment's Respite

**Time for a change of pace!**

… **Er, awkward Eggman impersonation aside, this is gonna be a decidedly different chapter than all the others. I'm calling it an "Interlude" chapter, with a focus on character interaction. In this one, I want to focus on a couple of groups, with one set of characters making their debut in this one. Their paths will cross with Tails' gang and the Resistance eventually, so don't go writing this one off, okay?**

 **Oh, one more thing. Expect to either laugh or shudder in this one. Some characters are, er, a little "off".**

* * *

"How'd I end up in THIS mess…?" A white, winged experiment muttered quietly, a tinge of fear evident in his voice. At present, he was sitting atop a large cliff adorned with a checkerboard pattern. He was also cowering behind a small rock. Given his circumstances, one could hardly blame him.

While being enveloped in a white light out of nowhere and being dumped in this strange place was disorienting, it wasn't his biggest problem. Neither were the robots.

The robots… He wasn't quite sure what to make of them. They looked totally ridiculous, and their pathetic attempts at attacking were as easily avoided as tilting one's head to the side, but they WERE annoying in large enough numbers. Nothing a liberal application of hail couldn't handle, though.

No, his problems were much, MUCH worse than that.

You see, he had a problem with-

"Oh, _Dumpling~!_ " A voice rang out. The experiment felt his blood run ice-cold.

Yeah, he had girl problems.

Normally, that wouldn't be too much of an issue normally. A normal girl would probably understand if you turned them down, though they may be more than a little hurt by it. Still, normally, you wouldn't have to worry about too much.

Irial Jr. Lightburst, also known as "Sunny", was NOT a normal girl.

She was a Demonic Experiment. That by itself wouldn't have been TOO big a deal, given how loving many of them seemed to be with their families. Hell, he came from such a family. But Sunny, well…

"Oh, my dear Angel food cake, _where are you~?_ " Closer that time. The white experiment didn't want to give himself away, but nonetheless prepared to take off.

To call Sunny 'psychotic' was like calling water wet, the sky blue, and that people died when they were killed.

It was actually a pretty severe understatement. Sunny was capital "P" PSYCHOTIC.

It was then that the rock he was hiding behind was suddenly lifted into the air. The white experiment slowly turned around, desperately hoping that it was a group of robots and not who he was thinking it was that was holding that rock.

A pair of deep red eyes met his sky-blue eyes.

"Found you, Sky!" The bright yellow experiment who was holding up the rock cheered. The white experiment, now identified as 'Sky', yelped in surprise and terror as he stumbled backwards.

"H-H-Hey, S-Sunny…" He managed to stammer out. Already, he was looking for any possible way to escape his current situation. Sunny giggled in response, her eyes suddenly blinking sideways as a result of her excitement. Sky felt beads of sweat go rolling down his face.

He nonetheless managed to clamber back onto his feet and began backing away as Sunny began walking towards him. He found himself zeroing in on the black rings around Sunny's arms, which portrayed the souls of her many victims screaming in eternal anguish.

Sky gulped. He knew he wasn't likely to to be joining them, but the crazy demon standing in front of him was, well, CRAZY. If THAT wasn't a turnoff, what was? Unbeknownst to Sky, a certain blue hedgehog would agree with him wholeheartedly, being able to relate to the experience and all.

"What's wrong, Skyburst?" She asked innocently, her voice beginning to distort due to her excitement, changing between her sweet girlish voice and a distorted, low demonic one. "Why are you backing away?"

"O-Oh, no reason…" Sky lied through his teeth. He had to keep her calm. Any wrong moves here would NOT end well for him. And in this unfamiliar environment, he wasn't sure if there was anyone who could lend him a hand anywhere nearby.

"Oh, dumpling…" Sunny said, still moving towards him. There were hearts in her eyes, and she was giggling in a lovestruck manner, which, combined with the demonic reverb underlying her voice, reminded him more of a deranged horror movie villain than a cute girl in love.

Sky backed up, but felt his foot reach the edge of the cliff. Unless he took off, he had nowhere to go. Sunny edged closer and closer to him, before asking, "Oh, Sky… Why not give me a kiss?"

At that moment, Sky turned around, spread his wings, and took off at top speed, desperate to get away from her. Sunny looked confused for a moment before her face lit up.

"Oh, playing keep away again?" She cheered, taking off into the air after him. "We play it all the time, but I love that game!"

Sky forced himself to fly faster, hoping that he could outpace her. Unfortunately for him…

"Oh, Sky, my sweet Sky Angel… I LOVE YOU!" Sunny called. Sky's blood ran ice cold as he realized that she was getting closer to him. Sunny's arm morphed into a long tendril, which she threw at him in an attempt to grab his leg.

Sky swerved, narrowly avoiding being caught. He was desperately looking for some kind of escape. SOMETHING that would get this insane demon off his tail. In doing so, he completely failed to notice where he was going and smacked face-first into a chequered cliff. For a moment, he was stuck in a Sky-shaped hole in the rocks, before slowly sliding out of it and falling to the ground. There were small birds circling his head as he pulled himself up and looked around in a daze.

"Uhhh…" He groaned, wondering why he was seeing two cliffs in front of him. Just as he began to shake his head to clear his vision, he felt strong arms wrap around him. All at once, his daze vanished, and he began to panic.

"SUNNY! LET GO!" He shouted in a panic, desperately trying to squirm his way out of her grasp to no avail. Sunny gave a slightly mad giggle in response, the demonic reverb returning to her voice.

"I got you~…" She said, sounding pleased with herself. She licked him on the cheek affectionately before declaring, "Well, time for my prize!"

She began puckering up as she said that. Sky began struggling even harder and began shouting, trying to break free. Realizing that he couldn't escape, Sky squeezed his eyes shut and braced for the worst. Then, just as she was mere moments from kissing him...

"Huh? Hey! Sunny! Sky!" Sunny stopped dead in her tracks and turned her head. Sky's eyes slowly cracked open. A girl in a red-and-white floral muumuu was running up to them, looking slightly out of breath.

"Oh, hey, Lilo!" Sunny greeted cheerfully as the girl came up to them. Lilo opened her mouth to speak, before noticing that she was holding Sky.

"Uh, Sunny? Are you doing bad things to Sky again?"

"No," the Light Demon said innocently.

"YES!" Sky shouted in protest. Lilo sighed.

"Sunny, let go of him. Something's wrong here," She ordered. Sunny did so, pouting as she did so before finally getting a look at their surroundings.

"Huh?" She asked. "Where are we? And, um, why is there sand falling instead of water?"

She had noticed that, despite them being in what appeared to be an idyllic green plain, where what would should be waterfalls were instead flowing with dry sand.

"I don't know," Lilo admitted. "I just saw some weird light, and then I was here. I've been trying to find Stitch, but I haven't been able to. You guys are the first two experiments I've found."

Sky clambered back up to his feet and looked like he was about to take off, but paused when he heard what Lilo said.

"Well…" He started cautiously, as if unsure if he should speak. He took a few cautious steps away from Sunny. "I saw something earlier…"

Lilo's attention went to him. Sunny's attention was already on him, and he had to resist the urge to fly off as quickly as he could.

"You saw something?" Lilo asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"When I was flying around here earlier, I saw this small blue thing racing past," He continued.

"Stitch?" Lilo asked hopefully. Sky shook his head.

"No, it was moving way too fast for it to be Stitch."

Lilo looked confused at that.

"Way too fast?" She asked. Sky nodded. "But Stitch can move pretty fast, so-"

"All I could see was a blur, honestly. I blinked, and it was gone, but it looked like it was going…" He pointed roughly towards the east. "That way."

"That way, huh…?" Lilo looked in that direction. "Hey, maybe we should follow it!"

"I'm not sure if that's a good-" Sky didn't get a chance to finish when Lilo took off in that direction. He was about to begin debating with himself whether or not he should follow her when a tentacle suddenly wrapped around his torso. He paled immediately, knowing who that tentacle belonged to.

"Now, Dumpling…" Sunny started. Sky squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for what was coming next.

…

…Nothing happened. Although, he did feel the sensation of the wind in his face. After a moment, he opened his eyes. Sunny had taken off after Lilo, with him in tow.

"I'd love to continue where we left off…" She said, before sighing. "But, yeah, Lilo's right. Something's wrong here, so I guess we can continue later."

"S-So why are you dragging me with you…?" Sky stammered. Sunny gave him a sweet smile that, to Sky, looked more like the smile of a blood-thirsty executioner.

"Because, Darling, I need you to be there so we can continue!"

Sky mentally brick-walled at that. Guess he was going, whether he wanted to, or not.

* * *

"So, lemme get this straight," Vector said, raising a non-existent eyebrow. "You guys are a bunch of artificially created aliens from another dimension, and some of you are also able to use magic, right?"

The group was lounging around the shuttle's bay. The experiments, particularly Stitch, had explained what he felt was happening, as well as a rough retelling of their backstory. This being after Slang nearly froze him to the wall, and it took the combined forces of Angel, Shadow (598), Aurora, Silver, and Vector to keep him from retaliating violently.

"Well, more-or-less," Angel said. "Some experiments, as in, most of the ones in this room with the exception of Shadow over here were born naturally."

"I don't believe you," Amy said, crossing her arms.

"Trust me, we're telling the truth," Stitch mimicked her gesture, giving her a lightly irritated expression.

"W-W-We really a-are…" Lady Kuroko stammered out. Summer just sighed and leaned back, reading his magazine. Sonic, who was casually lounging near the exit, sat up for the first time since the trip.

"C'mon, guys," He said evenly. "Like this stuff's any weirder than rescuing genies in magic books, fighting a giant darkness monster in the planet's core, or a giant mecha monster that ate time."

Stitch blinked. The blue hedgehog wasn't lying. There was nothing in his voice or body language that would indicate that. However, he came off as rather confident, to the point of being cocky. It didn't come off as a bluster, though. The even tone of his voice and the grin he was giving all said that he was completely and sincerely confident in himself. On the other side of the room, Slang, who had been examining her scythe, seemed to be making the same observation, and her eyes narrowed.

"…Good point," Amy conceded, nodding.

"Yeah, we've seen some pretty weird stuff," Silver agreed. "I mean, I'm from two hundred years in the future, and interdimensional travel's nothing new here. Remember the Sol Dimension?"

"Same with aliens. Remember the Black Creatures and, what was it, 'Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park'?" Vector added.

"And Shadow's kind of a genetic experiment too," Amy added. Shadow (598) regarded her curiously. She quickly clarified. "Er, there's a guy from our dimension who has the same name as you."

Espio nodded.

"Indeed. It's safe to say that we have faced many situations that most would consider out of the ordinary."

Aurora was thinking. All of these things sounded really interesting, and would warrant a more detailed retelling later, but one thing Sonic said earlier caught her attention: 'Time Eater'.

"Pardon me," Aurora started, looking towards Sonic. "You said something about a 'Time Eater'. Could you elaborate on that, please?"

As a user of time magic, Aurora found herself intrigued, and perhaps more than a little freaked out, by the idea of an entity that could consume time itself. Stitch, Angel, Lady, and even Slang and Shadow (598) seemed to be interested as well.

"It was just another Eggman plot," Sonic said, grinning at the memory. "Apparently, he found this thing out in space after his amusement park got eaten by a black hole. He decided to try and use it so he could undo all of his past defeats."

"And he lost!" Charmy cheered. "That was so awesome, how you went Super Sonic and pummelled that thing into next week!"

"W-Wow…" Lady whispered, sounding slightly awed.

"Sounds like you're a pretty experienced guy," Shadow (598) said. Sonic shrugged.

"I've been cracking the Eggman since I was like seven. You get used to it after a while."

"Considering what's apparently happened, it was foolish to get complacent," Slang said. Sonic gave her an amused glance.

"Funny that you say that. You know, Eggman still doesn't think he's actually beaten me," He said. That got a few odd looks, so he elaborated. "Eggman and I've been tangling so long, he thinks that the only way he's ever gonna win is if I admit defeat. I haven't."

"Huh," Stitch said, sitting up. "So, in his eyes, taking over the world means nothing if you haven't admitted defeat?"

"Pretty much."

"That's… Interesting…" Angel blinked.

"Hey," Silver started. "You said that you're from another dimension, but how do you think you guys got stuck in our world, anyway?"

"Yeah, I'd kinda like to know why we're here, too," Shadow (598) nodded in agreement. Slang said nothing, instead levelling a glare at Stitch, who responded in kind. At least, until Angel punched him in the back of the head and sent Slang a look. The hooded experiment went back to toying with her scythe, earning a sigh from Angel.

"Well… It's a long story," She sighed. "Stitchie, you wanna start, or me?"

"I'll start," Stitch said in response. "Alright, so, basically, it started earlier today, when Angel and I were going out. We had just met up, when…"

Angel noticed that Stitch was leaving out the freaky THING that they had seen, and what they had heard it say. Frankly, she couldn't blame him. He'd been seeing, and trying to get rid of, that thing for weeks, or so he told her. She had been rather alarmed when she'd seen it for the first time, and more than a little worried when she started thinking about WHY, pray tell, Stitch could see it.

"…Well, this magenta stone, I think it was a ruby, appeared right behind us. It made this weird noise," Stitch continued, before blinking in realization. "The same one that the masked monster makes, now that I think of it…"

Angel blinked. Yeah, now that she thought of it… Was there some kind of connection between that ruby, and the masked creature?

"Stitch," Aurora spoke up. "That creature, the one in the mask, he has a magenta stone on his chest. Do you think that-?"

"Probably," Pretty much everyone that wasn't an experiment in the room said at once. Aurora blinked. She wasn't expecting a response that fast.

"Experience has taught me to investigate anything that glows," Sonic said, grinning. "Next time I run into that guy, I'm gonna see if I can't get him to talk about it."

"…Right, good luck with that," Angel sweatdropped. "Anyway, long story short, those gems, um, 'Chaos Emeralds', right? They appeared right around that ruby and they all unleashed this flash of light that blinded us. Next thing we know, we're in the middle of a warzone."

"Sounds to me like it might have been Chaos Control," Silver mused. The experiments turned to him.

"Chaos Control…?" Angel repeated in confusion. Slang crossed her arms.

"That's the definition of 'oxymoron'," She said emotionlessly.

"…Okay, I'll bite, what the hell is Chaos Control?" Summer sighed, not looking up from his magazine.

"Chaos Control is a technique using the power of one or more Chaos Emeralds," Silver explained. "It can be used to slow down the flow of time, teleport from one location to another, and if two users of the technique invoke it against each other, it can produce a rift in spacetime that can be used for time travel."

"…You're joking," Stitch said.

"He's not," Sonic said. "I can use it myself. I just don't care to most of the time."

"Seriously?" Shadow (598) asked. He turned to Stitch. "Hey, you have one of those Emeralds, right? You think we could use it, too?"

Stitch was about to open his mouth to respond, only for Angel to hurriedly beat him to the punch.

"…I think it's best if we wait until we're on the ground first," She said. Stitch wanted to refute her, only for her to add, "After all, it wouldn't be a good idea to run the risk of accidentally blowing a hole in the side of the shuttle while we're in space, right?"

Stitch grumbled slightly, but quietly agreed with her and didn't press the matter. He just sighed and slumped back into his seat. Slang cast him a look, her face as always hidden behind her hood. He swore that she was smirking at him. Scratch that, she probably WAS smirking at him. He felt his eye twitch involuntarily…

"But, here's the thing," Amy started, breaking up the impending fight before it began. "You said that there was ruby of some kind there, right?"

"Right," Angel nodded. Amy looked thoughtful.

"Wonder what that could be? Maybe something to control the Emeralds?" She wondered aloud.

"Probably just something Eggman found," Sonic said, punching his open palm. "Nothin' a little force won't fix."

Stitch grinned. He decided that he liked Sonic's way of doing things.

"I'd be happy to help with that," He said, mimicking the gesture. Angel sweatdropped. Stitch was always looking for ways he could cause some more havoc. Granted, he was 'good' now, so he wasn't likely to put that knowledge to use, but the fact that he was still going out of his way to look for ways to cause trouble was a little concerning. Stitch seemed to notice her reaction and turned to look at her.

"Something wrong?" He asked. Angel snapped back to reality and shook her head.

"Ah, nothing, Stitchie," She said. Stitch gave her an odd expression, before nodding.

"So…" Shadow (598) started. "Anyone got any good stories? We've got a while to wait."

"Ooh, ooh! Tell 'em about the time you stopped the space colony ARK from crashing into the planet!" Charmy shouted.

"Oh, that one's a LONG one," Sonic grinned, crossing his arms. "Well, it started when the world's military, GUN, decided to come after me…"

* * *

 **And that's a wrap! Was that filler? Perhaps. But after seven chapters of action, we needed something to break up the tension and get some character interaction going. Sunny was fun to write, let me tell you. Innocent, but delusional. She kinda reminds me of a certain pink, hammer-wielding hedgehog in some aspects...**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed, and I'll see you guys in the next one!**


	9. Mission 4- Green Hill: Arsenal Pyramid

**And, we're back! Ah, that was fun, not writing about action for a little bit. That will be changing now. It's time for action! Time for Sonic to show everyone how cracking the Eggman is done!**

* * *

"Sonic," Knuckles said as he and the rest of the Resistance entered the room. "You being alive is the best news we've had in months."

"Well, I AM the definition of good news when it comes to stopping Eggman's plans," Sonic grinned, leaning against the wall.

"No kidding," Stitch remarked as he walked in. "If all those stories were true."

"Of course they are!" Amy proudly declared as she walked to the terminal in the center of the room. "It's Sonic we're talking about!"

Everyone stared at her oddly.

"…You're his number one fan, aren't you?" Angel sweatdropped. Sonic sighed, facepalmed, and shook his head.

"Yep," He deadpanned. "Out of a lot."

"That sounds… Oddly familiar…" Aurora noted, before sweatdropping as she remembered a certain white experiment who had to deal with a similar issue. She didn't get the chance to dwell on it before Summer floated in.

"Sucks to be you, then," Summer yawned, not stopping as he made his way to the door on the other side of the room.

"Where are YOU going?" Rouge crossed her arms.

"To bed. Going up to that floating death trap was so bothersome I could die," He deadpanned, before disappearing through into the corridor.

"S-Sorry a-a-about him… H-He's…" Lady Kuroko stammered, looking down at the ground as if ashamed.

"Eh, don't worry about it," Sonic waved it off. He pushed off the wall and walked towards her. Lady went "Eep!" and shrank as he approached. Sonic sweatdropped.

"You're kinda shy, aren't ya?" He noted. Stitch and Aurora looked at each other.

"…You have no idea…" Aurora sighed. Sonic opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted by Knuckles loudly clearing his throat.

"ANYWAY," Knuckles started. "I've got some bad news. Our intel indicates that Eggman's got a weapon's factory in Green Hill Zone, pumping out munitions for his war effort."

"Oh, great," Angel sighed, remembering what she had seen Eggman do to that place. Just what she needed: another reminder of it.

"Ngh…" Silver groaned. "We can't take out Eggman's home base in Metroplolis if he's got a factory supplying him."

"Way to state the obvious," Slang rolled her eyes. Shadow (598) looked thoughtful for a moment.

"You're bringing this up because you want someone to destroy it, don't you?" He asked. Knuckles nodded. The red echidna then looked over at Sonic.

"Look, Sonic. I know you just got back, but we're spread a little thin. You think you can do something about it? We need that factory in Green Hill Zone destroyed."

"Wait, hang on!" Angel started. "He just got back from being in prison for six months, and already, you're-!"

"Sure!" Sonic interrupted. "I've got six months of payback I'm _dying_ to spend. This sounds like a good start!"

Angel felt her words die in her throat. Just like that, Sonic had invalidated all of her concerns, with a big, cocky grin plastered on his face.

"Great!" Knuckles grinned. "Give me the word when you're ready, and we'll take you there! Maybe you can show the rookies a thing or two about dealing with Eggman."

Angel facepalmed when she heard that. Without looking, she already knew that Stitch was primed to explode on the red echidna in three… two…

"No need to take me or anything," Sonic shook his head, interrupting Angel's mental counter. "I'll just run there. It'd be faster anyway."

"Whatever you say, Big Blue," Rouge said.

"Hey, before I go, you guys got any chilidogs? I'm starvin'," the Blue Blur asked, looking around.

"Figured you'd ask that!" Vector said, before pulling one out from nowhere and throwing it at Sonic, who snatched it out of the air and took a bite. Aurora blinked.

' _Where'd he get that from…?'_ She wondered, making a note to ask about it later.

"Thanks, man," Sonic said between bites, before shoving the last of it into his mouth. The blue hedgehog gave a cocky smirk.

"Alright, I'm game! Let's do this!" He declared. Stitch grinned in response.

"Count me in!" He cackled. Before the two could get very far, however, Amy held out her hand.

"Hold it, you two!" She said. Both stopped to look at her.

"What?" They asked. Amy reached under the terminal in the center of the room, before pulling something out. Stitch knew what it was immediately, and he grinned.

"A new weapon!" He exclaimed in excitement, almost tossing his Burst Wispon aside, much to Angel's exasperation. The other experiments, save Slang, who simply scoffed, regarded it curiously. The weapon, while similar to said Burst Wispon, was instead a pale yellow in color and looked like a lightning bolt, rather than a fireball.

"Yep! It's a new model Wispon we've been developing. Here, take it with you," Amy explained, tossing it over. Stitch caught it and gave it a once-over before nodding in approval.

"Anything else?" He asked.

"No, that's about it," Amy said. "Just be care-"

"Thanks! We're outta here!" Sonic cut her off, blasting off out the door with Stitch in tow. Amy visibly deflated.

"-ful."

* * *

Sonic and Stitch dashed down the pathway at high speed. For Sonic, this was just another casual jog to one of Eggman's bases to tear it down. For Stitch, it was taking everything he had to keep up with the blue hedgehog's insane speed.

"The enemy's factory is inside the pyramid," Knuckles clarified over the comm link. "I can send reinforcements if you don't think you can handle it."

"Yes. When they fail, those of us who are actually competent will take over," Slang said, coldly. Stitch grit his teeth. God, she was irritating…

"No need!" Sonic said, brushing off Slang's comment as he Boosted through the hordes of Egg Pawns in front of them, picking up a good thirty Rings as he did so. "The two of us are more than enough! We'll blitz the place and open up a path for the Resistance! Right, partner?"

" _Ih!_ Assuming we don't just tear it down ourselves!" Stitch allowed himself to cackle as he imagined himself ripping the factory to pieces.

"Okay, then," Angel said, hesitantly. She sounded as if she wasn't comfortable with them being out there. Or was just unnerved by the maniacal cackle. Or both. "Just get back safely, okay? Boojibuu?"

Stitch smiled reassuringly. There was no way for Angel to see it, of course, but he felt the need to do so anyway.

"Don't worry, Angel! We'll be _okie-taka!_ " He declared.

There was a Dash Panel at the end of the path, one that the two blue-furred creatures sprang off of. Seeing a pipe just ahead of them, Stitch shot his grappling hook at it, and held out his hand to Sonic just as he began to swing. Instead, to Stitch's mild surprise, Sonic simply curled into a spinning ball and followed the exact same trajectory right next to him.

' _Probably just using his speed to make a cushion of air to keep himself aloft,'_ Stitch figured before shrugging it off.

There were a few more badniks waiting for them on the platform they landed on.

"Hey, mind if I try this thing out?" Stitch asked, eagerly looking at his new Wispon. Sonic grinned.

"Knock yourself out!" Stitch grinned back upon hearing the Blue Blur's words. He squeezed the trigger, causing a rope of electrical energy to burst forth from the weapon's barrel. Grinning, he swung it, allowing the whip to slice the robots in half.

"Catalina would love this thing," He noted, using the whip to latch onto another robot before pulling it in, allowing Sonic to Spin Dash right through

"Who?" Sonic asked as he uncurled, and he and Stitch leapt off of the platform and through several long rows of Rings.

"One of my older sisters," Stitch said, grabbing a Buzz Bomber out of the air with the electric whip, before slinging it off into the distance. It still felt weird to say that, all things considered, but it wasn't exactly an unwelcome revelation.

Sonic raised an eyebrow as he ran circles around an Egg Pawn, causing it to start staggering as if it were dizzy. He then kicked it, sending it flying off of the platform.

"'One of?'" He asked. "How many are you, exactly?"

"Thirteen," Aurora answered. "Thirteen siblings."

"…Uh…" Knuckles seemed to mentally reset when he heard that.

"Big family," Silver noted with a lowly whistle.

"…And hectic…" Aurora sighed. "Many of us inherited father's more destructive tendencies…"

"Hey, against Eggman, that's a good thing," Amy responded.

The two then leapt through several more rows of Rings, eventually landing on a platform that was below them. They blasted through it before coming to a large, curved pipe that was sticking out the end of it.

Noticing the curvature of the pipe, and realizing it was their only foothold, Stitch noticed another, smaller vertical pipe nearby. He shot his grappling hook at it, grabbed Sonic's hand, and the two of them drifted along the pipe's surface, causing the soles of Sonic's sneakers to throw off a shower of sparks as they did so.

"Not bad, partner!" Sonic nodded in approval as they came across another Dash Panel that launched the blue duo into the air. Stitch saw the pyramid that they were heading for towering over them in the distance. He then noticed a long road stretching out before them. He inwardly groaned. Great. Nothing but running. Sonic grinned, however, and as soon as they landed and went through the Star Gate in front of them, he turned to Stitch.

"Time for the two of us to team up!" He declared. Stitch cocked his head in confusion, only to blink in surprise when he saw Sonic's hand was glowing blue, and he was positioning for a hi-five.

"…What are you doing…?" Angel asked, sounding slightly uneasy.

"A hi-five? Really?" Slang sighed. "That's all?"

Stitch looked at his paw for a moment, before hi-fiving Sonic as a response. The instant he did so, it was as if he'd been plugged into an electric socket; an intense rush of energy flowed through him, begging for release.

"…Woah," He said simply. Sonic grinned.

"It doesn't matter what obstacles they put in our way. We'll just blow past everything they throw at us!" He jumped into the air, curled into a ball, and started spinning. Stitch felt the strong urge to do the same, before jumping and curling into a ball himself. A blue aura ignited around them both.

"Ready?" Sonic asked. _"Double Boost!"_

Before anyone could say anything, Sonic and Stitch suddenly shot forward with unprecedented speed!

A swarm of robots, having not noticed them, DID notice a thundering noise approaching them with incredible speed, only to get mowed down and sent careening into the distance when the duo of blue blurs came rocketing through them.

"What the-!?" Shadow (598) started, sounding taken aback.

"W-Woah… I-I-I can barely see t-them…" Lady Kuroko squeaked.

"I _can't_ see them moving," Aurora said, sounding awed.

Having since noticed them, several dozen robots tried to stand in their way. Without exception, each and every one was sent flying, being flung out of the way by the two with contemptuous ease.

As they ran, dozens of Rings began to fly towards them, as if they had some kind of magnetic field. As they collected them, Stitch felt the energy flowing through him swell immensely. Sonic did as well, and this caused them to speed up even further. In the blink of an eye, the far-off pyramid was now mere yards in front of them and closing in fast.

"Yeah! That's how it's done!" Sonic exclaimed as the two of them shot up the side of the pyramid. There were several rows of Buzz Bombers in their way. In a flash, the two of them tore right through them, sending them flying off into the distance at record speed. "We've got unstoppable speed and timing! We just have to keep this up!"

The two of them went through another large mass of Rings, before being tossed into the air and off of the end of the path by several Springs. Stitch felt the incredible rush of energy subside, and the fiery blue aura vanished.

"Looks like we've got our entrance!" Stitch noted, seeing a massive hole at the very top of the pyramid that seemed to lead directly into its depths.

"You should be able to get into the factory through there," Amy said. "We won't be able to keep an eye on you two while you're in there, so stay alert!"

"Be careful, you two! …Especially you, Stitchie!" Angel added. Stitch just gave her another unseen smile of reassurance.

"Heh. This should be fun!" Sonic grinned. Below them, lasers began to activate, blocking off sections of the shaft they were now falling into.

"You've got a pretty weird definition of 'fun'," Stitch remarked (not that he was one to talk) as the two of them held out their hands to slow their rate of descent. In particular, Sonic let his quills spread out into a make-shift parachute, allowing him catch air easier. They swerved to the right, then the left, avoiding the first two sets of lasers. As they did so, there were several 10 Rings just below which they promptly grabbed. Then, more lasers, these ones rotating around the shaft, lit up below them. Sonic and Stitch positioned themselves in the center, allowing them to neatly fall through.

There were three more sets of lasers, each of them circling around the shaft. Stitch and Sonic found it easier to just stick near the middle and slightly adjust their course to avoid the beams, before hitting the ground.

There was an Ivory-colored Wisp waiting for them down there. Sonic grinned upon seeing the Wisp, before giving it a friendly wave.

"Hey! You gonna help us out?" He asked. The Wisp nodded, before making strange gibberish sounds. It then phased through Stitch's Wispon in a brief, electrical flash.

" _LIGHTNING!"_

"So, you know what that one is?" Sonic asked, casually.

" _Gaba_?" Stitch tilted his head to the side. "Oh, um, no _._ "

"Alright, lemme tell ya: the Ivory Lightning power lets you use a little move called the 'Light Speed Dash'. You can use it to pretty much fly along a trail of Rings," Sonic quickly explained. Stitch raised an eyebrow at the technique's name but decided to say nothing of it. He saw that there was a long trail of Rings in front of them, just waiting for them to travel along it.

"Alright, let's do this," Stitch said, running up to the Rings with Sonic in tow. Stitch squeezed the trigger. In a flash, he suddenly found himself and Sonic in the air. There was another Ivory Wisp waiting for them.

"…Woah," He whistled lowly. Sonic, who had grabbed onto him and was dragged along for the ride, grinned. The Wisp jumped into Stitch's Wispon, priming it once more.

" _LIGHTNING!"_

Stitch squeezed the trigger again, this time ending up, once more, in mid-air, with a trail of Rings and a Wisp waiting for them. As Stitch went to work repeating the process, Sonic spoke up.

"So," Sonic started. "They're building weapons here, huh?"

Stitch blinked. "Oh, yeah, seems so. And if reports are to be believed, they're making everyone work like they're robots, or something…"

For the first time, Sonic's expression darkened a bit.

"Yeah, well, it'll be _Eggman's_ turn to be pushed around when I get a hold of him," He stated, almost matter-of-factly. Stitch fought the urge to shudder at the hedgehog's tone.

When they emerged from the Ring trail, they saw a small, hovering robot floating underneath a Dash Ring. Without missing a beat, Sonic rammed it with his Homing Attack. This had the effect of propelling him and Stitch into the Dash Ring, sending them flying forward a short distance, where a pit and a bend in the road faced them.

Thinking fast, Stitch used his grappling hook on some nearby pipes, allowing him and Sonic to swing across the rather deep pit below them. Swinging around the corner, they saw several of those robots conveniently floating there, waiting to be bounced off of. Sonic curled into a ball and slammed into the nearest one before charging into the next at blinding speed. Physics caught up a moment later as both robots exploded.

Getting an idea, Stitch shot out his grappling hook, latching onto one of the furthest robots before reeling in the hook, allowing himself to be carried by it into the robot, smashing it. Before he could start falling, another Wisp flew in and phased through his Wispon. Conveniently enough, there was a trail of Rings waiting to be dashed across.

"Nice thinking!" Sonic complimented as he and Stitch came out of their dash. There was one more floating robot ahead of them, leading Sonic to use his Homing Attack on it. Noticing the path below, he Stomped, grabbing Stitch's arm as he did so. The instant they landed, Sonic Boosted forward, right through a large group of Rings. There were several large lines of Egg Pawns lying in wait for them.

Without stopping, Sonic simply barrelled right through them, seeing as an object weighing 77 pounds and moving at the speed of sound isn't likely to care about some thin sheets of metal that a certain egg-shaped mad scientist thinks means 'armor'.

At the end of the path, the two were launched into the air by a Dash Panel, then launched further by a series of Dash Rings. Barrelling through three of them, they eventually found themselves falling down a vertical shaft. Sonic grinned, realizing where they were.

"That was a cakewalk!" He declared triumphantly. Stitch heard Angel sigh in relief.

"I don't know why I was even worried," Amy said.

At the bottom of the shaft, a series of Dash Panels sent them rocketing towards the center of the factory, where construction lines lay ahead of them.

* * *

A mace came crashing down on the Egg Pawn's head, instantly crushing it flat. Another, meanwhile, burst into flames before collapsed into a molten puddle of liquid metal.

"Hey, Galatica, that all of 'em?" Asked a very large red-and-blue experiment, with an eyepatch covering his let eye asked. He was panting lightly from exertion. Behind him, a very small green-and-pink experiment, holding a wand, was also panting slightly. Surrounding them were the remains on a small army of robots.

In between pants, the smaller experiment, evidently named 'Galatica' responded. "It looks like it, dear…"

She sat down, trying to catch her breath. It didn't take her long, however, and she looked up at her companion.

"Now… I think we can focus on our situation…" Galatica said. The larger experiment just gave her a puzzled expression.

"…What situation?" He asked. The smaller experiment sighed.

"Well, we could start with 'where are we?'" She responded. The larger experiment blinked, before looking around. They were standing atop a rather large skyscraper, in an odd-looking city. Below them, strange roads and pipes connected to large, flat platforms, vaguely reminiscent of pinball machines, that were sticking out of the buildings.

"Um…" He paused. "We're in a city?"

"You know, Odin, I love you, but sometimes…" Galatica shook her head in exasperation and amusement. She stood up and looked up at him.

"More importantly than that, there's something else we need to address: where are our daughters?"

That seemed to click. Odin whipped his head back at her in alarm. Before he could say anything, however, the smaller experiment held up her paw.

"Dear, even though we're both worried, you know as well as I do that they can all handle themselves," She reminded him. "Why, Slang and Fang by themselves could probably handle more of these things than you and I can."

Odin blinked.

"That's… true, I guess, but what about-?"

"Stella could as well, but knowing her, she'll do anything she can to avoid trouble. Clover and Angel…"

She blinked.

"Well, if there's anyone we should look for, it should be them," She conceded, before placing a paw to her chin. "Although, if I had to guess…"

"Guess what?"

"If I had to guess… They're not alone," Galatica said, smiling slightly at the thought. That time, Odin seemed to get what she meant, and his expression darkened. Galatica laughed a little at his expression.

"Oh, come now, honey, you know that they're growing up," She smiled. Odin responded by grumbling under his breath.

Still amused, Galatica looked out at the setting sun.

"Well, then, I believe we should get going."

* * *

 **Alright, so this one took a while. Let's chalk it up to a bit of writer's block, and an obsession with Fairy Tail courtesy of the anime's ending. With that out of the way, hopefully, I'll be able to start cranking out updates again.**


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